Dr Adam Rutherford delivers Eckersley Lecture
Geneticist, author and broadcaster Dr Adam Rutherford inspired an audience of Bedales students, parents and staff at the annual Eckersley Lecture on 21 January.
Dr Rutherford, who co-hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry, gave his lecture on the subject of his recent book, How to Argue with A Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality, a Sunday Times bestseller which dismantles outdated notions of race by illuminating what modern genetics can and can’t tell us about human difference.
During his visit to Bedales, Dr Rutherford took the time to talk to students and gave a copy of his new book, Control, to the Memorial Library. The book, which is published on 3 February, explores the dark history and troubling subject of eugenics.
Bedales Head of Sciences Liz Stacy said: “For over 50 years, the Eckersley Lecture has enabled some of the world’s greatest scientific thinkers to communicate their ideas and research to the Bedales community. We are grateful to Dr Adam Rutherford for maintaining this tradition with his stimulating lecture and spending time beforehand talking to Bedales students.”
Dr Rutherford’s lecture marked the return of the Eckersley Lecture series after a COVID-enforced absence in 2021. The lecture is named after brothers and former students Thomas and Peter Eckersley, who attended Bedales in the 1900s; Peter was the first chief engineer at the BBC and his brother Thomas was a theoretical research engineer. Established in 1966, the lecture series is a highlight in the school’s Science programme and has welcomed many notable speakers, among them two Nobel Prize winners Professor Sir Lawrence Bragg, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Lord Robert Winston.