Ian McEwan on Science

Essays, Articles & Lectures

(2012) 'The Originality of the Species', The Guardian, 23 March 2012. [Essay on originality in science and the humanities.]

(2008) 'A New Dawn', The Wall Street Journal, 8 November 2008 [On global climate change and the election of Barack Obama].

(2007) Lecture at Stanford University. '"End of the World Blues": Scientific Perspective on End-time Religion'. Reprinted in The Portable Atheist, ed. Christopher Hitchens.

(2006) 'Preface', What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty, ed. John Brockman. New York: Harper Perennial. Read an unedited version courtesy of the author.

(2006) 'A Parallel Tradition', The Guardian, 1 April 2006 [On the thirtieth anniversay of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene].

(2005) 'Let's Talk about Climate Change', openDemocracy.net, 21 April 2005.

(2003) Hilary Lecture, Oxford 2003. 'Literature, Science and Human Nature, Collected' in The Literary Animal, Darwinian Perspectives in Literature, ed. J. Gottschall and D. Sloan Wilson. Read an unedited version courtesy of the author.

(1998) 'Move Over Darwin', The Observer, 20 September 1998: 13 [Review of E.O. Wilson's Consilience]. Read an unedited version courtesy of the author.

(1995) 'The Rebirth of Human Nature', Financial Times (London), 7 January 1995: 16.

(1990) 'The Pathology of Self-Deception', The Independent (London), 23 September 1990: 28.


Broadcast Events, Podcasts, etc.

(2014) 'Conversation with Steven Pinker', Royal Geographical Society, 25 September 2014.

(2014) 'Conversation with Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology, Yale', at UCL, London, 6 September 2014.

(2014) Henry Marsh talks with Ian McEwan: 'Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery', Hay Festival, 30 May 2014.

(2013) 'Ian McEwan Hangout On Air', Random House, 23 July 2013.

(2013) Ian McEwan in Conversation with Arkani-Hamed. Science Museum. [Watch the video]. Partial transcription available as 'What is the common ground between art and science? And how is Beethoven like Darwin?' The Observer, 16 November 2013.

(2012) Ian McEwan talks to Matt Ridley about climate change. The Guardian, 27 July 2012.

(2011) Harris, Sam. 'The Moral Landscape: A Conversation between Sam Harris and Ian McEwan', Cambridge Wordfest, Cambridge, UK. (16 April 2011).

(2011) Panel discussion. 'The Neuroscience of Emotion', Royal Society, 5 July 2011. Watch a video.

(2009) Richard Dawkins: Interview with Ian McEwan. The Root of All Evil? Channel 4 TV program. [Conversation includes discussion of Religion, Darwin, etc.]

(2008) 'Science Extra Podcast', The Guardian, 14 July 2008 [McEwan on the differences between the creative process in art and science | Audio download available].

(2008) 'A Conversation With Ian McEwan & Steven Pinker', PEN World Voices: The New York Festival of International Literature. 3 May 2008. [Listen to the Conversation | Reviewed at Wild River Review | Transcript of the conversation published as "Shadow Lines" in PEN America 9 (2008): 131-38; Reprinted in Conversations with Ian McEwan. Edited by Ryan Roberts. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2010 | Ian McEwan and Steven Pinker discuss evolutionary biology and how we communicate with each other.]

(2008) Talk on Consciousness, a literary and scientific perspective at Wellcome Trust, 2 October 2008.

(2007) 'A Matter of Great Human Ingenuity', The Guardian: Science Weekly, 30 July 2007 [Ian McEwan discusses what draws him to science and revels in the genius of some of his scientific heroes, including E.O. Wilson, Voltaire and Charles Darwin | Audio download available via link on the website].

(2007) Jonathan Greenberg. 'Why Can't Biologists Read Poetry? Ian McEwan's Enduring Love', Twentieth Century Literature 53.2 (Summer 2007): 93-124. [Overview essay on contemporary literature, including a discussion of McEwan and Biology.]

(2007) Conversation with Steven Pinker about language and cognition, New York PEN, transcribed in Areté: Tri-quarterly Magazine, Winter 2007.

(2000) 'Darwin and Creation Myths', Thought for Today, BBC Radio 4.

(1998) 'Science's Revelations', BBC Radio 4 (Archive), 29 October 1998. [Melvyn Bragg examines whether science has ruined our sense of poetic wonder at the world. With Ian McEwan and Richard Dawkins | Audio download available via the website].