EXPeditions - The living library of knowlegde

Peter Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, examines microbes, life and its origins.

About Peter Girguis

"I’m a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

My research focuses on the deep sea and the relationship that animals and microbes have to one another, but also to their environment. We do a lot of work developing new tools to make measurements that we cou...

Buzz Baum, Cell Biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, explains the beginnings of life on Earth.

Key Points

• Darwin hypothesised that all living organisms are branches on a tree and that there is one single trunk to life on Earth. • Two partners gave rise to all complex cells: bacteria and archaea. We are all composite organisms – a mixture of bacterial genes and archaea organisms. • Many aspects of a...

Jim Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge, explains the traits Darwin thought to be fundamental to humans.

About Jim Secord  "I’m the Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project in the University Library at Cambridge University.

My research is on public debates about science in the 18th and 19th centuries. I’ve written particularly about Victorian evolution and debates about the problem of...

Emanuele Coccia, Associate Professor of Historical Anthropology at EHESS, discusses metamorphosis.

About Emanuele Coccia "I am Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

I’m working on art, fashion and ecology. I published The Life of Plants four years ago, and this year I published a book called Metamorphoses."

Key Points

• Metamorphosis shows that life cannot be reduced to a single anatomical or moral...

Tim Lenton, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Exeter, discusses how our remarkable planet came to be the way it is now.

About Tim Lenton "I’m Director of the Global Systems Institute and Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. My work focusses on the transformation of our planet.

Reading Jim Lovelock’s books on Gaia ignited my passion for studying the Earth as a whole system. I study how ...

Nowadays, I would say almost every person I see in therapy talks about their troubled body en passant, as though it is not something to be dealt with because it is just something you have to live with.

About Susie Orbach "I am a psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and writer, and the co-founder of the Women’s Therapy Centre in London and New York.

I look at how the issues of society are structured into the individual, and constitute how...

Anger is a primordial emotion and appears across cultures as a formative force.

About Josh Cohen "I’m a psychoanalyst in private practice in London and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London.

My research is at the borders of psychoanalysis, literature and cultural theory. I’ve written a number of books, including one on Sigmund Freud, on privacy, on our aversion to work and, most recently, on the re...

Helping and being helped informs almost all our forms of relating to other people.

About Adam Philips "I was trained as a child psychotherapist and I worked in the NHS for 17 years. I am currently a psychoanalyst and a writer. Since 2003 I have been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud.

I write one day a week and I tend to write about psychoanalytic topics. I don’t ever write about my ...

Lisa Appignanesi, Visiting Professor at King’s College London and Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, explores “good” and “bad” emotions.

About Lisa Appignanesi "I’m a Visiting Professor in Medical Humanities at King’s College London. I’ve written books on anger, on love and trials of passions, and on women.

I’m fascinated by the subject of emotions: extreme emotions, madness, Freud, the therapeutic and psychiatric profession...

Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University, examines Aristotle’s approach to emotions and how we might understand them.

About Edith Hall "Professor of Classics at Durham University and Fellow of the British Academy.

I’m a classicist, originally focused on Ancient Greek theatre. I’ve spent most of my career blending data from ancient Greek literature with sociology, history, political theory and philosophy. I like to wri...

Lisa Appignanesi, Visiting Professor at King’s College London and Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, gives a brief history of extreme emotions.

About Lisa Appignanesi "I’m a Visiting Professor in Medical Humanities at King’s College London. I’ve written books on anger, on love and trials of passions, and on women.

I’m fascinated by the subject of emotions: extreme emotions, madness, Freud, the therapeutic and psychiatric pro...

Barry Smith, Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, explores the nature of explanation and human consciousness.

About Barry Smith

"I'm a professor of philosophy and Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London School of Advanced Study.

I'm a philosopher of mind and language, and I'm interested in how these systems help put us in touch with the world around us and with ourselv...

Tamsin Edwards, Reader in Climate Change at King’s College London, explains the risks of polarised thinking in climate change.

About Tamsin Edwards

"I’m a climate scientist and Reader in Climate Change at King’s College London.

My work involves quantifying the uncertainties in climate model predictions, and particularly the changes that we’ll see for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets’ contributions to sea level rise."

Key Poin...

Mark Burgman, Director of the Centre for Environmental Policy, discusses the work dynamic between scientists and policymakers.

About Mark Burgman "I'm the Director of the Centre for Environmental Policy, and Chair in Risk Analysis and Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.

My work deals with the techniques for conservation biology and, more generally, with the tools for risk analysis that contribute to expert judgement, s...

Keith Moffat, Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge, talks about fluid mechanics.

About Keith Moffat

"I’m Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

My research field is fluid mechanics in all its aspects, ranging from the micro scale, applicable to biological fluid mechanics in particular, to the macro scale interaction w...

There's a famous saying by Francis Bacon that knowledge is power. As president of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks persuaded the British government to invest in science.

About Patricia Fara "I’m an Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.

I've got a degree in physics, but my real passion is the history of science, and I love writing books because I want to show everybody that the history of science is the history of absolutely e...

There aren’t many women in the history of science. I think it's crucial to explore the past and examine how those prejudices and obstacles that women faced in the past are still affecting women today.

About Patricia Fara "I’m an Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.

I've got a degree in physics, but my real passion is the history of science, and I love writing books because I want to show everybody that the history of scienc...

What has been learnt about the universe in the last 50 years will be one of the real high points, along with discoveries like the double helix and genetics, and Darwin and evolution.

About Martin Rees

"I'm the UK's Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.

My research is mainly on trying to understand our universe around us. Aside from astronomy and space science, I’ve bee...

Bruce Stillman, Oliver R. Grace Professor and CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, discusses the highs and lows of life as a scientist.

About Bruce Stillman

"I’m a biologist and biochemist, and President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

I’m a scientist who works on the inheritance of genetic information, the inheritance of DNA and how the biochemistry of that process works, to understand how our genes are inherited fr...