Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureate, Deputy Director of the Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge and President of the Royal Society said, “The GREAT Talk is a wonderful initiative by the British Council to engage and inspire young students. My talk today was aimed at tracing the history of science that has existed ever since humans started making observations. In this lecture, I highlighted the self-correcting nature of the scientific process and also talked about the unsubstantiated beliefs that persist in modern society. I believe it’s important to inculcate a logical and scientific way of thinking in the young minds, and UK education offers the same along with a plethora of career-enhancing opportunities.”

The British Council hosted The GREAT Talk at the FICCI auditorium, New Delhi with Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan where the Nobel Laureate spoke on the topic – 

‘On Nobody's Word: Evidence and Modern Science’

Taking the audience on an enriching journey, Sir Ramakrishnan drew on his wealth of experience across Physics, Chemistry and Molecular Biology, to trace the history of science back to the time when humans started making observations and conjectures about the world they inhabited. He elaborated on how the modern scientific method was born in the 16th and 17th century when evidence began to matter more than elegance or appeals to authority.

This attitude to science was probably helped by the freedom of thought that accompanied the reformation in Europe, and resulted in an explosion of knowledge in the last three centuries with accompanying benefits as well as some hazards for humanity.

Sir Ramakrishnan spoke about science being different from dogma as it is constantly changing with new facts being uncovered and theories overthrown. While he accepted scientists are humans and thus fallible, he demonstrated science itself to be self-correcting. In this intriguing lecture, Sir Ramakrishnan presented examples of errors made by scientists and talked about how they were corrected by the scientific process. Additionally, he went on to show examples of irrational and unfounded beliefs that persist in contemporary society. He spoke in detail about the ‘Placebo effect’ and shared interesting insights on how certain recoveries were purely psychological and had no relation with science and medicine whatsoever, thereby proving some methods to be wrong. He further shared his thoughts on astrology calling it ‘bogus’ as it followed the same pattern from generations with no new found discoveries with relation to astronomy.

The talk was attended by over 500 students, scientists, faculty and enthusiasts from top colleges and universities in and around NCR who gave the scientist their undivided attention throughout.

The talk was attended by over 500 students, scientists, faculty and enthusiasts from top colleges and universities in and around NCR who gave the scientist their undivided attention throughout.

The talk ended with an interesting question and answer session with Sir Venkatraman also sharing his views on the climate change situation the world is facing.

The GREAT Talk is a multi-city initiative aimed at motivating young Indian students to plan their careers effectively by interacting with eminent UK speakers. The platform offers students a once in a lifetime opportunity to expand their horizons, meet with prominent speakers and explore new career directions. It offers a compelling opportunity to Indian students to engage with distinguished UK personalities who bring insightful, real world experiences and outlook to their academic pursuits.

Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is Deputy Director of the Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge and President of the Royal Society. He grew up in India where he received his bachelor’s degree in physics before moving to the USA in 1971. On obtaining his Ph.D. in physics in 1976, he switched to molecular biology and after a long career in the USA he moved to Cambridge in 1999. He is best known for his work on ribosomes, the large molecules in all cells that read genetic information to make proteins. Additionally, Sir Ramakrishnan is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina (the German Academy of Sciences) and a Foreign Member of the Indian National Science Academy. He received the Louis-Jeantet Prize for medicine in 2007 and shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2009.

For more information please contact:

Arushi Gupta | arushi.gupta@in.britishcouncil.org

Manager - GREAT Education Campaign I Services for International Education Marketing |