Best-selling science writer Richard Fortey will be visiting Bristol University on Monday 24 May to talk about his latest book 'The Earth: an intimate history'.
The talk, to be held at 5.30 in Lecture Theatre E29, Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, is already sold out.
Professor Richard Fortey, FRS, was appointed the University of Bristol's Collier Professor in the Public Understanding of Science and Technology in 2002, and was based in the Institute for Advanced Studies. His best-selling book ‘The Earth’ was largely written in Bristol while Fortey held his post here.
Professor Fortey says we should think of the Earth as a recycling system, forever turning granite into clay and sand, ocean mud into marble, gathering gold in veins and silver into seams. The Earth is the greatest show on earth. He will tell us how everything - human culture, natural history – even the shape of cities – springs from a deeper geological truth. Far from being a dry science, he will demonstrate how geology informs all our lives in the most intimate way.
Professor Fortey is senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. In 2003 he was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize for science writing and he will be speaking at this year's Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival. His book ‘The Earth: An Intimate History’ was published by HarperCollins on 1 March 2004 and has already sold well over 15,000 copies in hardback.
He is the ideal guide to the natural history of the first four billion years of life on Earth.
This is the fifth in a series of lectures given by the holder of the Collier Chair in the Public Understanding of Science and Technology (now known as the Collier Chair of Public Engagement in Science and Engineering).
The Chair holders to date are:
Professor Peter Cochrane, OBE
Professor Sally Duensing
Sir Neil Cossons, OBE
Professor Richard Fortey, FRS
Professor Kathy Sykes (current holder)
The Chair was created by the University of Bristol in celebration of the life and work of Dr John Collier, FRS, FEng, late Chairman of Nuclear Electric. The chair has been funded by a consortium of donors, including BNFL, Magnox, SmithKline Glaxo, Powergen, Strachan & Henshaw and the Garfield Weston Foundation.
The Chair is attached to the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University.