Abstract

Note: this event will be part of the Cambridge Science Festival

The 94 year-old James Lovelock, famous for his Gaia Hypothesis that earth is a self-regulating, single organism speaks with Helen Czerski and Chris Reply on the future of Gaia (& humanity).

About the speakers: James Lovelock is an English chemist, medical doctor, scientific instrument developer, and author best known for the creation and promulgation of the Gaia hypothesis, Lovelock was also the inventor of several chemical-detecting devices, including the electron-capture detector (ECD).

Helen graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2001 with a BA and MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics), and again in 2006 with a PhD in experimental explosives physics. After three and a half years spent working in the USA , she returned to the UK in 2010 as a research fellow at the ISVR .

Christopher Graham Rapley was the Director of the British Antarctic Survey from 1998 to 2007. He was appointed Director of the Science Museum in 2007, stepping down in 2010. In 2008 he was awarded the Edinburgh Science Medal – “For professional achievements judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding and well-being of humanity” Since January 2014 Chris is the Chair of European Space Agency (ESA), Director General’s High Level Science Policy Advisory Committee.