Friday, September 24, 2010

A Meeting of the Minds

 "Sir David Attenborough, 84, is a naturalist and broadcaster. He studied geology and zoology at Cambridge before joining the BBC in 1952 and presenting landmark series including Life On Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984) and, recently, Life. Richard Dawkins, 69, was educated at Oxford, later lectured there and became its first professor of the public understanding of science. An evolutionary biologist, he is the author of 10 books, including The Selfish Gene (1976), The God Delusion (2006) and The Greatest Show On Earth (2009). He is now working on a children's book, The Magic Of Reality."

What happens when you put them in a room together and ask them questions? Read the interview here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/11/science-david-attenborough-richard-dawkins


Thanks for this one Rick!
Posted by scientessa at 9/24/2010
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3 comments:

Slack-jawed Yokel said...

I really hope this starts something where more big name senior scientists sit down and chit chat and allow us to eavesdrop. Listening to these two, I started to appreciate how disparate their experiences and observations have been- and yet describing the same concepts.

>On a side note, I'm trying to get the voice in my head to sound like Attenborough... he could describe the smell of a dog fart and I'd hang on every word.

September 24, 2010 at 3:25 PM
scientessa said...

Me too. I would love to hear/read any of those interviews.

I generally have to take Dawkins in doses, although his writing is pretty great if a bit pompous.

Attenborough I could listen to all day every day.

September 24, 2010 at 4:10 PM
Slack-jawed Yokel said...

I haven't listened to Dawkins expensively and only in relatively short snippets. He never leaves much room for interpretation about what he's getting at- which I think is unusual when speaking about personal beliefs (especially in the US). There's been a huge debate amongst bloggers etc about tone and inclusion (I don't know if saw that train wreck from the summer) of religion in science. Dawkins has a reputation for being very abrupt, but I think it's situation specific. He's described evolution to evangelicals eloquently and without being strident- and keeps his swords back when discussing religion with them. On the other hand, when he's in a debate on stage with someone consistently misrepresenting evolution (which is when we most often see him), it's a different story.

BTW- I'm reading 'Why Evolution is True' by Jerry Coyne- excellent demonstration of the strengths of evo and the weaknesses of ID in the light of data.

September 24, 2010 at 5:34 PM

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