Sir Paul Nurse, Foreign Member of CAS, Delivers Academic Lecture at UCAS
A+ / A-
Recently, Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, UK, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine and Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), visited the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and delivered a lecture titled "What is Life?".
Lecture scene. (Image by UCAS NEWS)
During the lecture, Sir Paul Nurse, starting from the fundamental principles of cell biology, systematically elaborated on the nature and characteristics of life in an accessible manner. Beginning with "the cell", he reviewed the key discoveries of scientists from Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow, emphasizing that the cell is the basic unit of life, and vividly explained how cells interact with their environment through boundaries and maintain internal order.
Sir Paul Nurse delivers lecture What is Life? (Image by UCAS NEWS)
The lecture spanned five core sections: The Cell, The Gene, Life as Chemistry, Life as Information, and Evolution by Natural Selection. Sir Paul Nurse not only outlined key biological theories but also wove in stories of scientific giants such as Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, and Charles Darwin. He emphasized that life is not merely a collection of chemical and physical processes but a complex system reliant on information storage and regulation; all life on Earth originates from a common ancestor and evolves and adapts through natural selection.
The lecture integrated historical perspectives, philosophy of science, and insights from modern biology, offering a profound answer to the fundamental question: What is Life?
Sir Paul Nurse in discussion with students. (Image by UCAS NEWS)
The lecture was hosted by Zhou Qi, CAS Vice President and President of UCAS. More than 300 Chinese and international students from UCAS, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and other institutions participated and actively engaged in the Q&A session, exchanging insights. (UCAS NEWS)
Copyright © 2002 - Chinese Academy of Sciences
15 Zhongguancunbeiyitiao Ave., Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China
86-10-5935-8373(O) 5935-8300(Fax)
中文
中文
