August 30, 2010
Harold Varmus ’61, a Nobel Laureate in Medicine who majored in English at Amherst (writing a thesis on Charles Dickens under the direction of Professor of English William Pritchard ’53), discussed what the lives of Romantic Age astronomers William and Caroline Herschel, as revealed in Richard Holmes’ recent book, The Age of Wonder, tell us about science: what it is, who does it, who pays for it, what it offers to society and how it is related to the arts and humanities. Watch video of the lecture, as well as an advice-laden exchange with inquisitive first-years, in the video below.
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