Alive: what life is, how it works, and why it matters
- Date & time
- Speaker
- Melanie Challenger, Nick Lane, Philip BallMelanie Challenger (author); Nick Lane (Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry, University College London); Philip Ball (science writer, former Nature editor)
- Location
- Royal Institution, London
- Organisation
- The Royal Institution
Topics
About this talk
Living beings are not machines, but embodied, self-organising entities whose activity is directed towards staying alive. In this thought-provoking conversation, author Melanie Challenger is joined by biochemist Nick Lane and science writer Philip Ball to explore some of the most fundamental questions in science and philosophy. Drawing on Melanie's new book 'Alive', alongside Nick and Philip's own research, the discussion ranges from the origins of life and the energetic principles that sustain it to emerging ideas about agency, individuality and what distinguishes living beings from inert matter. Together, they will consider whether recent advances in biology are changing our understanding of life, undermining older ideas of life-forms either gene-driven machines or something more. Join Melanie, Nick and Philip as they approach these questions from different perspectives, and ask what it means to think of living beings as embodied and purposive in their own right. Copies of Melanie's book 'Alive: what life is, how it works, and why it matters' will be available for purchase after the talk. This is a theatre and livestream event for an adult audience, where the speakers and audience in the Theatre are joined by the audience online. Doors to the theatre will open at 6.45pm and the talk will begin at 7.00pm. The livestream will go live at 6.55pm and the introduction will begin at 7.00pm.
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