Description
Natural selection is a kind of search engine. Given enough time, and suitably vast populations, it should find the best solutions repeatedly. So why are bacteria still bacteria? And why did all complex life on our planet share an ancestor that only arose once in four billion years? I will suggest that everything we see around us stemmed from a freak accident two billion years ago. We are far from inevitable, and may be alone in a universe of bacteria.
To mark Brain Awareness Week, Dr Mark Lythgoe will take audiences on a journey in search of the greatest brain of the 20th century, a brain which was removed during the autopsy of Einstein in 1955. Through this journey, Dr Lythgoe will then discuss whether Einstein’s brain was extra special, and...
Published 03/21/12
The smaller the scales we want to look at, the bigger the tools we need to use, and with complex equipment of this magnitude, it is becoming more and more common for research groups to share central user facilities. Focusing on UCL's use of central user synchrotron radiation facilities...
Published 03/21/12
We hear a lot about the stresses of juggling motherhood with paid work, and the subsequent harm this might cause children. However, this lecture to mark International Women’s Day discusses evidence from UK cohort studies following generations of men and women which suggests that working mothers...
Published 03/13/12