Edwards Lecture 2013 - Great Ideas of Biology with Sir Paul Nurse

BOOKINGS FOR THIS EVENT HAVE NOW CLOSED

The Edwards Lecture this year will be presented by Sir Paul Nurse; Nobel Prize winner and current President of the Royal Society. This is following the Glorious Measurement event for schools taking place during the day (http://www.city.ac.uk/events/2013/march/glorious-measurement).

Great Ideas of Biology

Three of the great ideas of biology are the gene theory, the theory of evolution by natural selection, and the proposal that the cell is the fundamental unit of all life.  When considering the question of what is life these ideas come together, because the special way cells reproduce provides the conditions by which natural selection takes place allowing living organisms to evolve.  A fourth idea is that the organization of chemistry within the cell provides explanations for life's phenomena.  A new idea is the central role that information management plays in generating biological organization. 

Sir Paul Nurse is the President of the Royal Society. He took up the post to start his five year term on 1 December 2010. Paul Nurse is a geneticist who works on what controls the division and shape of cells. He was Professor of Microbiology at the University of Oxford, CEO of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research UK and President of Rockefeller University New York. He is currently Director and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick Institute.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001 and the Royal Society Copley Medal in 2005.