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Monday 18 October 2021

"Life is simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free
and Unlocked the Universe"

Professor Johnjoe McFadden
(University of Surrey)

Johnjoe McFadden is Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey. His principal field of research in molecular genetics, particularly of microbes that cause infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistance and vaccines. He has also been an advocate for Quantum Biology for nearly twenty years, writing the popular science book, ‘Quantum Evolution’ published in 2000 and then, in 2014 and with the physicist, Jim Al-Khalili ‘Life on the Edge’ describing recent exciting discoveries of quantum mechanisms in photosynthesis, bird navigation, enzymes and consciousness. He has also written several papers exploring the role of the brain’s endogenous electromagnetic fields in consciousness, most recently in Oct 2020. As well as his mainstream science research, McFadden writes popular science articles for newspapers such as the Guardian in the UK and internationally on subjects ranging from GM crops to the evolution of altruism. He is Director of the Leverhulme Quantum Biology Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Surrey.

His talk begins in the turbulent times of the medieval friar, William of Occam, who articulated the principle, known as Occam’s razor, that the best answer to any problem is the simplest. Occam's razor cut through the thickets of medieval metaphysics to clear a path for modern science. The talk will follow the razor in the hands of the giants of science, from Copernicus, to Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Vera Rubin and Higgs. Its success suggests that we live in the simplest possible habitable universe and supports the revolutionary theory that our cosmos has evolved. The principle of simplicity is as relevant today as ever.

In September Basic Books published Professor Mc Fadden’s book entitled “Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Unlocked the Universe” £25.00.

Review by John Banville for the Irish Times below

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