As part of Science Week 2025, the Emanuel science department was joined by Professor Armand Leroi, evolutionary biologist and winner of the Guardian First Book prize for his book Mutants – which detailed the variety of the human race.
The afternoon started with Professor Leroi meeting our you enthusiastic junior scientists to look at some of the projects that they have been working on, focussing on adaptations and wetland habitats. He also met Beatrice (Y9), who was the winner of our first ever Science Fiction writing prize jointly run with the English department. Professor Leroi joined several Sixth Form students and staff for lunch, answering many inquisitive questions as he enjoyed the fabulous spread put on by the catering department.
Afterwards, Professor Leroi attended Biology Journal club where he listened to two presentations by year 12 students critiquing research papers. Romilly (L6) presented an article on Tuberculosis controls in badger populations, discussing the presence (and lack) of correlation between different areas. Karan (L6) presented an article on sugar intakes among adolescents, concluding that intake of sugars are on the rise and that more awareness must be raised about the dangers of such a rise. He was very impressed at both the quality of the presentations from our students and the questions and discussion from those who were part of the Biology Journal Club, commenting that the depth of understanding and knowledge from the presenters was exceptional, to only for a Year 12 student, but they would hold their own against some of his own students at Imperial!
After a short break, Professor Leroi took to the Hampden Hall stage in front of the entirety of Sixth Form. Prof Leroi gave an overview of his career in biology, starting from his love of aquatic life as a child in South Africa, and then onto his entertaining research into extreme mutations of the human body with images of people with smaller heads and other more grotesque images! Prof Leroi continued onto his BBC documentary ‘Lagoon.’ He spoke about Aristotle and how his observations and experiments led him to the conclusion that Aristotle must be the first ever scientist, having studied the writings of the great Greek philosopher which he discovered in an old bookshop near the Ancient Agora in Athens. Onto the current day, Prof Leroi spoke about his current work at Imperial College London and his interest in the evolution of worms through time. Prof Leroi was then joined by four Sixth Form students on the stage in a panel discussion where he answered more questions relating to his research and his interests, sending the entire Hampden Hall into raucous laughter at his response to some of the questions.
Prof Leroi’s engaging presentation capped off a remarkable day as science at Emanuel continues to evolve onwards and upwards.
-Karan (L6)
