VIDEO: Relive world-leading scientists' talks at historic Schrödinger at 75 meeting

Posted on: 21 November 2018

Earlier this year, Trinity welcomed five Nobel Prize-winners and some of the world’s most brilliant science minds to speak at the Schrödinger at 75 – the Future of Biology meeting. This stellar international meeting took its inspiration from an iconic moment in history that changed the course of science when Erwin Schrödinger delivered his paradigm-shifting What is Life? lectures in Trinity in 1943.

Seventy-five years ago, the basis of heredity was the urgent unsolved question. But after speaking of an ‘aperiodic crystal’ to describe what genes were made of, Schrödinger’s lectures had a tremendous impact on the development of molecular biology, including a major influence on the discovery of DNA’s double helix. That opened the door to huge scientific progress, with a billion and one secrets slowly prised from DNA and the genes that had previously been shrouded.

Fast-forward to 2018 and the burning issues of science today were on the agenda at Schrödinger at 75. Over 20 talks took place across the two days, featuring Nobel Prize-winners and world-leading scientists. including renowned philosopher, Professor Daniel Dennett, who delivered the keynote address on the Future of Life, and Professor Christoph Koch, who gave the Schrödinger Lecture on the Future of Consciousness.

The speakers addressed the most pertinent questions involving The Future of: Chemistry; the Brain; Fruit Fly and Circadian Biology; Emotion; Complex Systems; Extinction; Ancient DNA; Gene Editing; Brain Editing; Artificial Intelligence; Biological Engineering; Science Communication; Bioenergetics; Infectious Disease; Plant Life; Ageing; Immunology; Cognitive Neuroscience. 

You can now relive the presentations below or watch them on YouTube here.

And if you would like to learn more about Erwin Schrödinger and the fascinating path of events that brought him to Ireland, and to Trinity, you can watch the enthralling Thinking Outside the Box: Schrödinger in Ireland documentary, which aired on RTÉ One last week, by clicking here.

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