Centenary lecture

Wills Memorial Building, 6.00pm, Admission free

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Please note, this event is fully booked.

Professor Steven Rose, Emeritus Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Open University

The future of the brain: the promise and perils of tomorrow's neuroscience

Listen online (1 hr 05 mins)

Download this lecture (mp3, 61Mb)

Lecture description

If the 1990s were the decade of the brain, for many neuroscientists this past decade has been that of the mind, in which we propose to ‘explain’ memory, consciousness, love, religion and morality in terms of brain processes. At the same time novel neuro-technologies are being developed both to alleviate psychic distress but also to make possible an unprecedented degree of control over our minds and thoughts by the state. I will assess these prospects and perils, but, I will finally argue, the mind is wider than the brain.

Biography of Professor Steven Rose

Emeritus Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Open University

Steven Rose has a degree in biochemistry from Cambridge and a PhD in neurochemistry from London. In 1969 he was appointed Professor of Biology and Director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University, where he is now Emeritus Professor. His research centres on the neurobiology of learning and memory. He is working on a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease. He has held visiting appointments at the Australian National University, Harvard, the University of Minnesota, the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Academica Sinica in Beijing and University College, London.

In the 1960s he co-founded the Brain Research Association, now the British Neuroscience Association. He has received many accolades including the Biochemical Society’s special medal for science communication, the Edinburgh Medal and the silver medal of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. For five years he was a regular panel member of Radio 4’s The Moral Maze.