Science Lectures - "Growing Up In The Universe"

Professor Richard Dawkins is the famous evolutionary biologist and ethologist who wrote the book "The Selfish Gene" and introduced the word "meme" into everyday English. Richard Dawkins is also the current holder of the "Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science" at the University of Oxford.

In 1991, Richard Dawkins gave a series of 5 one-hour lectures on Science which was telecast on BBC television. These lectures were aimed at children and young adults. Recently, all 5 lectures were made available on the internet for free viewing online by Richard Dawkins' foundation (prior to the free release, you would have to buy the DVD to view them).

If you have young children who are interested in science (maybe they want work in the fast growing Biomedical/ Biotechnology industries that Singapore is investing huge amounts of money in currently when they grow up), they might find these science lectures interesting. I watched them last night, and they were so engrossing I had to watch all 5 of them at one sitting. They are exceptionally educational and absorbing.

This is a short segment from one of the lectures explaining how our human eyes have evolved:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUOpaFVgKPw

If your children find this segment to be interesting, they may want to watch the entire 5 lectures. As for myself, I have never had science lessons when I was young presented in such a fascinating manner. Indeed, I found this series to be very illuminating as I had always marvelled at the incredible workings of the human eye. In another lecture, the even more complex brain and its workings are described.

All 5 lectures can be watched from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website:

http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org/foundation,growingupintheuniverse