The Gifford Lectures: Beyond the Series – Why is Life the way it Is?

The Gifford Lectures, established in 1887, are one of the most prestigious lecture series in the world, dedicated to promoting and advancing the study of natural theology—exploring profound questions about the relationship between science, philosophy, and religion. Over the years, the lectures have welcomed some of the most influential thinkers, sparking rigorous intellectual discussion and deep reflection on life’s biggest mysteries.

In partnership with the University of Edinburgh, we are proud to continue this distinguished tradition. This year, we are excited to introduce a special one-off event outside the regular lecture schedule: The Gifford Lectures: Beyond the Series — an autumn session that expands the scope and reach of the series.

This exclusive lecture will feature Professor Nick Lane, a leading evolutionary biochemist and award-winning author.

Join us this October for a compelling evening of thought-provoking discussion as we delve into one of biology’s most profound questions through the lens of one of the world’s foremost experts.

Why is Life the way it is?

Life seems to have occupied every niche on Earth. Short of flouting the laws of physics, anything looks possible. But that view is deceptive. All complex life is composed of the same type of cell, which arose just once in the four-billion-year history of life. The barrier to complexity was probably not genetic, but energetic. Bacteria are constrained by the way they generate energy, through an electrical charge on their bounding membrane with the force of a bolt of lightning. This force can be traced back to life’s putative origins in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here, the flow of charge can drive a network of chemical reactions, starting from CO2, which prefigures the metabolism of all cells today. Concealed within the genetic code itself are patterns which suggest that biological information arose from direct physical interactions in metabolism. If so, genetic information emerges predictably from chemistry and should be similar in life on any of the 40 billion wet, rocky planets in the Milky Way. Physicists have long been puzzled by the fine-tuning of the cosmological constants, yet the story from biology is equally unsettling. Life is this way for a reason. But the singular origin of complex life was no miracle.

Nick Lane is Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry and Director of the Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution (CLOE) at University College London. His research is on how energy flow has shaped evolution from the origin of life to the evolution of complex eukaryotic cells and the emergence of traits such as sex, ageing and consciousness. Nick has published more than 130 papers in leading journals including Nature, Cell and Science, and written five award-winning books. These have been translated into 30 languages and recognized by the Royal Society Science Book Prize (2010), the Biochemical Society Award (2015) and the Royal Society Faraday Prize (2016). Bill Gates called The Vital Question “an amazing inquiry into the origins of life”.