- Tuesday 5 February 2013
- 7.00pm to 8.30pm
- Lecturers: Prof Steve Jones
The Bible was the first scientific textbook. The double helix and the mushroom cloud have joined the Cross, the Crescent and the Star of David as global icons. Like the ancient scribes, the people who invented those two images seldom ask new questions, but - unlike them - they do sometimes come up with new answers. The topics studied by today's physicists, astronomers and biologists have obsessed mankind since long before their subjects began. Although science does rather better at providing answers than do the Testaments, we sometimes find it as hard to decide what to do with the information as did the prophets of old.
Steve Jones will discuss in particular the overlap between new work on genetic predisposition with the ancient idea of inborn human frailty, of original sin, in fields as distinct as sport, obesity and crime.
Tickets: £10 standard, £7 concessions and £5 Associates. Members go free.
Make a night of it! Come for a cocktail or something delicious, modern and British to eat in the bar. The bar and café at the Ri has the perfect atmosphere for a night out.