Colfe’s was delighted to welcome Dr Adam Connors to present the first of the year’s John Glyn Lectures, in which he presented a fascinating insight into complex neuroscience and the scientific wonders of the deep sea, and the importance of storytelling in both areas of research.
Dr Connors gained his PhD deep underground, building part of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, before running off to teach physics in a rural town in central Sudan. He’s now an AI Researcher at Google DeepMind in London, where he weaves science into his books and storytelling into his science in equal measure.
From developing many Google products including Google Search, Photos, Docs, and Maps, he moved to DeepMind Health with the goal of using artificial intelligence to improve human health, and is now a researcher in Foundational Research, working as part of the “Path to Artificial General Intelligence” team, exploring the human side of AI.
Dr Connors explained: “I hoped to prove that stories aren’t just about making things up: stories are as important to scientists as they are to novelists; they’re how humans learn and understand, they’re how we connect with each other. I concluded with the observation that the students will (we hope) far outlive myself and the teachers. For that reason, they are the most important people in the world, and they need to remember that the most dangerous trap is in thinking that nothing changes. The most important questions are the ones that you don’t think to ask, and the most valuable thing you can do is look for the questions you haven’t asked yet, and then be brave enough to ask them.”
Maria (Y7) gave the following review:
The lecture, given by Dr Adam Connors, was an engaging exploration of two fascinating topics: the deep sea and neuroscience. In the first part, Dr Connors showcased incredible images of glowing deep-sea creatures and discussed the challenges of exploring such an unknown and fragile environment. He then shifted to neuroscience, focusing on seizures and showing how they disrupt normal brain activity, along with a detailed description of his book “Find me after”. With clear explanations and captivating answers to complex questions, Dr Connors kept the audience interested in both subjects, leaving them with a sense of wonder about these two mysterious areas of science.
