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Being Human: How our biology shaped world history. Professor Lewis Dartnell is an astrobiology researcher based at the University of Westminster, and also an Honorary Research Associate at University College London (UCL). He has appeared in TV shows such as BBC’s Horizon, Wonders of the Universe, and documentaries on National Geographic, Discovery and History channels. He is also author of the best-selling books The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch and Origins: How the Earth Shaped Human History. He writes for The Guardian, The Times and New Scientist. Copies of The Knowledge exist on the surface of the Moon, and in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Our bodies are a wonder of evolution but they’re also deeply, inescapably flawed; to be human is to live with this extraordinary contradiction. So, to understand the course humanity has taken, from prehistoric times through the age of empire and into the modern era, we must understand who, and what, we are.
From epidemics, bringing peasants freedom and vitamin deficiencies giving rise to the Mafia, to cognitive biases causing military catastrophes in Crimea and Iraq, we see how our unique nature has shaped our relationships, economies and societies. And importantly, how it impacts human progress today. This is history made flesh.
It will change how you see the world. We are delighted to welcome Professor Lewis Dartnell to Bedales for our 2026 Eckersley Lecture.
Being Human takes us on a mind-expanding journey across time to show how our biology determined history.