Darwin Lectures at Cambridge University - from evolution to REVOLUTION!

To some revolutions are dangerous, fearsome and worrying … to others they’re exciting and provide an opportunity to change society for the better.

In some schools of thought they are disruptive and destabilising, while in others, such as the sciences, they can be seen as progressive and a natural way of advancing our knowledge of the world around us.

This year’s Darwin Lecture series takes the pretty big topic of revolution as its theme. We spoke to the co-curators, Dr John Nilsson-Wright, Associate Professor in Modern Japanese Politics and International Relations, and Dr Aylwyn Scally, Associate Professor in Genetics.

John: Because my field is politics and international relations I was interested in the concept of anger and political change. I guess the idea for the series came on a whim in the pub! The idea of revolution seemed relevant as it feels like we’re going through big political changes. Whether they amount to revolutions or not is an interesting question. We then had to come up with topics that would appeal to people working in the sciences, arts and humanities as well as the social sciences.

Also this year is the 60^th anniversary of Darwin College so the Master really wanted a big, eye-catching topic.

John and Aylwyn in conversation at Darwin College

John and Aylwyn in conversation at Darwin College

Aylwyn: We start planning about two years in advance and that’s when we start putting together our ideas and reaching out to people we’d like to speak. Because you’re inviting distinguished people, and often leaders in their respective fields, you do need to plan ahead.

John: Broadly our remit is to be as comprehensive as possible and because the College is made up of Fellows from so many disciplines, and because we come from two different perspectives, we wanted to be as representative as we could be.

Aylwyn: And you’re inevitably going to have to leave something out. There have been more than eight revolutions across all the fields of knowledge …the scope is potentially so broad.

John: And everyone has an idea … particularly with regards to this particular topic.

Sir Simon Schama will deliver the first lecture on the disappointment of revolutions in which he will address the question of whether they ever live up to expectation.

Sir Simon Schama will deliver the first lecture on the disappointment of revolutions in which he will address the question of whether they ever live up to expectation.

Aylwyn: It’s interesting that you point out that revolutions in the sciences can be seen as a positive thing. Because revolutions can lead to an advancement in our understanding of the world. That connects back to the very first Darwin lecture given by Karl Popper who chose the topic “How does science advance?” The key issue for him was the philosophical definition of what is a revolution. I think we’re probably going to end up debating that in a way we didn’t anticipate when we started planning this series.

John: We want to examine revolutions in different disciplines and in different historical perspectives but we also wanted to try to capture people to deliver these lectures who we feel may have had a revolutionary impact on their particular fields of study. So Sir Simon Schama, as our first speaker, is such a high-profile and influential commentator on the nature of revolution, that you could also say he’s a ‘revolutionary’ thinker. Or with our own Nobel Prize winner, Didier (Queloz), here’s someone who’s made an impact with what they’ve discovered.

An Exoplanet orbiting a distant star

An Exoplanet orbiting a distant star

Aylwyn: It wasn’t a deliberate pun to ask Didier to talk about Exoplanets and revolutions (Exoplanets orbit a star) but I’m sure that may play out. There is something in this series that people may find amusing and that’s linked to the publicity around it. So when you see the poster with Darwin’s face and the word revolution under the image, it’s striking as you normally think of evolution with him. We have a speaker, Nick Lane, who’s going to address that dichotomy…that is, how life has evolved through these revolutionary changes. That’ll be an interesting topic to address. I’m also looking forward to Matthew Cobb’s lecture. He’s currently writing a biography of Francis Crick and will touch on perhaps the most famous genetic revolution, the discovery of DNA, which of course is a Cambridge story.

John: Each speaker has such a broad canvas to work from and I have to emphasise these lectures really are public events. The challenge for the speaker is always to be able to communicate both to a specialised and a generalised audience. The art is not to talk down to people, not over-simplify but at the same time to capture the complexity of the issue. We’re keen to draw in as many people as possible.

Aylwyn: That’s the joy of this series … we attract people of all ages and never assume that they know nothing about the topic. We find audiences come along with a real desire to learn more.

The Darwin Lectures take place each Friday from 19th January to 9th March 2024 and are free to attend.

Darwin Lecture Series

Darwin Lecture Series

Published 19th January 2024

^{With thanks to:}
^{John Nilsson-Wright}
^{Aylwyn Scally}

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.