Quick Questions with Professor John Harris

Professor John Harris is Lord Alliance Professor of Bioethics at University of Manchester, and a leading commentator on the relationship between science, ethics and innovation.

He's participating in Tuesday's Cafe Scientifique, Who needs men anyway? and answers our quick questions:

What - or where - is perfection?

Perfect just means “as good as it can be” which of course is always relative to what’s possible in the circumstances.

Which scientist or artist (dead or alive) would you like to meet and why?

Plato because he knew Socrates and understood that thought experiments are often the most useful and certainly the most cost-effective of scientific procedures.

What was your favourite science experiment or invention at school?

No idea! I don’t remember ever doing or even seeing one. Although we did make gun cotton in chemistry once; but it wasn’t an experiment any more than my eating breakfast is an experiment in nutrition or in aesthetics. But we weren’t able to blow up the school which was something of an anti-climax.

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" - Who or what has most helped you to see further?

It is not seeing further but seeing differently that matters. For me it was Bertrand Russell.

Who needs men anyway? is on Tuesday, 29 June 2010 from 17:45-19:15 in The Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre.  It's free - just turn up and join in.

It is one of a series of Cafe Scientifique events held as part of See Further: The Festival of Science + Arts. Cafe Scientifique is a place where, over cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore science and technology. To join in, just turn up, get a drink, and get involved in the discussion.