Category: lectures

Matthew’s Bernal Prize Lecture on Francis Crick

June 19, 2025 • 1:31 pm

The Royal Society has announced the winner of the 2024 Bernal Prize, which happens to be our own Matthew Cobb:

Scientists don’t often admit it to themselves, but most scientific discoveries are over-determined. If Watson or Crick had fallen under a bus in 1952, then Franklin, or Wilkins, or Pauling, or someone would soon have discovered the double helix in their place. Furthermore, as Crick put it in 2000, ‘Discoveries and inventions are more important than the people who make them.’ But sometimes the individual does matter. After the double helix was discovered, none of the clever people involved – not Watson, nor Franklin, nor Wilkins, nor Pauling – sought to draw out the deep implications of the structure. Only Crick did that, and his ideas, and the way he proceeded, influenced the course of discovery and the way we now think about genes and cells and evolution. Had Crick fallen under a bus in 1954, the course of science would have been different.

Having spent three intensive years immersed in writing a biography of Crick, Professor Cobb will use his life and work (not just the double helix!) to explore the role of individuals in scientific discovery and the importance of recent attempts to diversify the pool of scientists, something that is currently under attack.

About the award:

The Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture 2024 is awarded to Professor Matthew Cobb for his work documenting the history of biology as both an author and broadcaster.

The Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture is given for excellence in a subject relating to the history of science, philosophy of science or the social function of science. The Wilkins, Bernal and Medawar lectures were originally delivered as three separate lectures, each given triennially. Since 2007, they have been combined under the one title of the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Lecture. The medal is of bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £2,000.

I was going to put this up earlier but forgot, and the lecture is just winding up. The good news is that it’s on YouTube and you can see the whole thing.  I’ll watch it this evening, but put your comments below.

There’s quite a lot about consciousness in here, too, as the lecture is supposed to incorporate philosophy, and there’s a 15-minute discussion/Q&A session at the end.

Congratulations to Matthew.

 

Going to the Galápagos and then Israel

August 2, 2023 • 1:00 pm

I’m long overdue for some traveling, and so here are my next two trips.

Galápagos:  I’m lecturing for a University of Chicago Alumni group tour on a Lindblad cruise of the famous archipelago. I’ll be gone from August 11 through August 20 (a quickie). I’ll be giving two big lectures and perhaps two audience-participation discussions.

Israel: This has always been on my bucket list, so I’m going for a few weeks. I’m leaving here September 2 and will return Sept. 23.

In both cases, please don’t send wildlife photos (or many email items in general), as I’m not sure how much internet access I’ll have, and stuff may get lost. Posting on this website will certainly be much more sporadic. I will do my best.

HOWEVER, if there are any readers in Israel who would like to say “hi”, I’ll be there for about three weeks. The first ten days I’ll be in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, often (but not always) with friends, and after that will travel around the country to see more sights.  Email me if you want to share some hummus or falafel!

Neil Shubin to give prestigious lecture on “Your Inner Fish”

March 23, 2021 • 12:00 pm

The University has just announced that my colleague Neil Shubin, paleontologist, developmental biologist, and author, will be giving this year’s prestigious Ryerson Lecture. Click on the screenshot below for details:

You have to register in advance, and it’s online, but it’s free. Here are the details and the link:

A prestigious tradition celebrating the scholarly work of a UChicago faculty member, the Ryerson Lecture will take place virtually April 20 at 5 p.m CT. The lecture, entitled “Finding Your Inner Fish: Fossils, Genes and the History of Life,” is free and open to the public; registration is now open through this link.

The Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Shubin is known widely for his evolutionary work including the groundbreaking discovery of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil considered a missing link between fish and all animals on land, including humans.

After you register (all that’s needed is your name, email address, and “do you plan to attend this lecture”—a weird question), you get a note that you’ll receive an email link to the talk on Monday, April 19—the day before.

Be there or be square!

Quillette lecture on the “religion” of social justice by John McWhorter: Sept. 25 or 26

September 3, 2020 • 8:45 am

Thanks to Quillette, you’ll be able to watch a free lecture by John McWhorter in a bit more than three weeks. The reason I’m announcing this early is that you have to reserve a spot, which is free for the talk and the afterparty (if you want to attend the virtual salon and ask McWhorter questions, it’ll cost you 200 Australian dollars). The dates and times vary because Australia is on the other side of the International Date Line. In the US, McWhorter’s talk will start at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 25, as noted below.

More info from the email I got:

While acknowledging that some aspects of modern social justice movements are vital and necessary, John McWhorter has likened some progressive activism to a new expression of ancient religious impulse – with its own versions of Original Sin, rituals, dogma, and even excommunication—often in the form of “cancel culture.”
As an associate professor of linguistics and comparative literature at Columbia University for over 25 years, and a popular writer penning pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico and The New Yorker (just to name a few), John is well-versed in the dangers and pitfalls of radical social justice.
At a time when emotions are heightened and divisions seem intractable, McWhorter’s moderating voice is more valuable than ever. Join him in conversation with political satirist and television presenter Josh Szeps on September 26

The main event is this:

A free presentation where John will explore ideas around radical social justice and its place in today’s society. You will have the opportunity to debate and ask questions during the show via the Event Chat.

I’m not sure why one must reserve a spot for the free lecture, but I’ve done it anyway, and I suppose you should, too. To do that, go to the “reserve page” here, click “get tickets” on the upper right, and fill in the blanks. If you’re “going,” put it on your calendar now.

 

A blast from the past

August 22, 2020 • 10:30 am

 

by Matthew Cobb

About six months ago, in the time before lockdown, I gave a talk about my then new book, The Idea of the Brain, at the Royal Institution in London. About a week later, the country went into lockdown and because the RI staff were furloughed, they could not work on the video. Reader Christopher mailed Jerry last night to tell him that the video was now online – I didn’t know! Anyway, here you are:

The talk was chaired by my pal the science journalist and author Adam Rutherford, who fell ill with covid a couple of days later and is still not fully recovered. Be careful out there. . . 

JAC: The question-and-Answer section of Matthew’s talk has surfaced, and I’m posting it below:

Peter Holland lectures on the diversity of animals

July 2, 2020 • 2:30 pm

So far I’ve watched only about 30 minutes of this brand-new (virtual) lecture on the diversity of animals by Professor Peter Holland of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, but it looks to be good. Not long ago I read his The Animal Kingdom: A Very Short Introduction, one of Oxford’s lovely small paperbacks to introduce people to new fields. It was an excellent read, despite my initial worries that a short book couldn’t begin to cover that topic.

Holland is a clear and eloquent lecturer, and his slides are very good as well.

 

Holland puts his talk within the framework of Darwin’s theory of evolution, laying out the evidence for evolution Darwin mustered in The Origin, and segues into one of his interested: evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo).

Here’s the lecture summary:

When we think of evolution, the first person that springs to mind is Charles Darwin. In The Origin of Species (1859), Darwin presented evidence supporting evolution, proposed the useful metaphor of an evolutionary ‘tree’, and suggested an underlying mechanism: natural selection acting on variation. But there were still big questions, such as the shape of the tree (who is more closely related to whom?) and the nature of inherited variation (what are variants or mutations?)

In this talk, Professor Peter Holland explored how animal evolution is studied in the 21st century, with a focus on remarkable new insights we are gaining from molecular biology and genome sequencing.

h/t: Matthew Cobb

Pinker to post his “Rationality” lectures

February 9, 2020 • 1:30 pm

After I noted that Steve Pinker was teaching a course on Rationality at Harvard, and had put a lecture online, I’ve had a few inquiries about whether he’s going to publicly post all his lectures for the course. (Its website is below; click on screenshot.) The answer is yes for his lectures, but for guest lecturers he has to get their permission.

The lectures are being uploaded at this site, and there are already four of them posted. So tune in if you want to follow the course.

I am informed that Steve begins each lecture with a rock song appropriate to the topic of the day. And although, when I called attention to his first talk, I said I couldn’t see whether he was wearing cowboy boots, I’m additionally informed that he never lectures without cowboy boots and a necktie. The tie is partly is in memory of his grandfather Carl Wiesenfeld, who made ties in a factory in Montreal founded during the Depression (Metropolitan Cravat).