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Adam Rutherford
Adam David Rutherford (born January 1975) is an English geneticist and science communicator. He was an audio-visual content editor for the journal Nature for a decade, and is a frequent contributor to the newspaper The Guardian. He formerly hosted the BBC Radio 4 programmes Inside Science and (with Hannah Fry) The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry; has produced several science documentaries; and has published books related to genetics and the origin of life.
He is an honorary senior research associate in the division of biosciences at University College London.
Rutherford became President of Humanists UK in June 2022, succeeding Alice Roberts.
Rutherford, who is half-Guyanese Indian, was born in Ipswich in the East of England and was privately educated at Ipswich School.
He was admitted to the medical school at University College London, but transferred to a degree in evolutionary genetics, including a project under Steve Jones studying stalk-eyed flies. He was awarded a PhD in genetics in 2002 by University College London for research completed at the UCL Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital supervised by Jane Sowden. His PhD investigated the role of the gene CHX10 on eye development, with focus on the effect of mutations in this gene on the development of eye disorders.
Rutherford's other academic research was also on genetic causes of eye disorders, including the relation of retinoschisin to retinoschisis, the role of mutations of the gene CRX in retinal dystrophy, and the role of the gene CHX10 in microphthalmia in humans and mice.
Rutherford published a book on the topic of the creation of life. The United Kingdom printing has been called "two books in one", since Creation: The Origin of Life and Creation: The Future of Life are printed back-to-back so that one can read the book from either end. Among its topics, the first part of the book argues in support of the theory, first proposed by Thomas Gold, that life emerged not in primordial warm ponds, but in extremophile conditions in the deep ocean, while the second part discusses synthetic biology – the use of genetic modification to create new organisms. In the U.S., this book is published in a more conventional format with the title Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself. He was also one of the authors whose works are included in the compilation The Atheist's Guide to Christmas.
Rutherford was the Podcast Editor and the audio-video editor for the journal Nature until 2013, being responsible for all the publication's published audio, video, and podcasts. He also published audio interviews with notable personalities, including Paul Bettany on his role playing Charles Darwin in the movie Creation, and David Attenborough in his documentary Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life. He wrote editorials on diverse other topics, ranging from the overlap of art and science to reviews of science-themed movies.
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Adam Rutherford
Adam David Rutherford (born January 1975) is an English geneticist and science communicator. He was an audio-visual content editor for the journal Nature for a decade, and is a frequent contributor to the newspaper The Guardian. He formerly hosted the BBC Radio 4 programmes Inside Science and (with Hannah Fry) The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry; has produced several science documentaries; and has published books related to genetics and the origin of life.
He is an honorary senior research associate in the division of biosciences at University College London.
Rutherford became President of Humanists UK in June 2022, succeeding Alice Roberts.
Rutherford, who is half-Guyanese Indian, was born in Ipswich in the East of England and was privately educated at Ipswich School.
He was admitted to the medical school at University College London, but transferred to a degree in evolutionary genetics, including a project under Steve Jones studying stalk-eyed flies. He was awarded a PhD in genetics in 2002 by University College London for research completed at the UCL Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital supervised by Jane Sowden. His PhD investigated the role of the gene CHX10 on eye development, with focus on the effect of mutations in this gene on the development of eye disorders.
Rutherford's other academic research was also on genetic causes of eye disorders, including the relation of retinoschisin to retinoschisis, the role of mutations of the gene CRX in retinal dystrophy, and the role of the gene CHX10 in microphthalmia in humans and mice.
Rutherford published a book on the topic of the creation of life. The United Kingdom printing has been called "two books in one", since Creation: The Origin of Life and Creation: The Future of Life are printed back-to-back so that one can read the book from either end. Among its topics, the first part of the book argues in support of the theory, first proposed by Thomas Gold, that life emerged not in primordial warm ponds, but in extremophile conditions in the deep ocean, while the second part discusses synthetic biology – the use of genetic modification to create new organisms. In the U.S., this book is published in a more conventional format with the title Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself. He was also one of the authors whose works are included in the compilation The Atheist's Guide to Christmas.
Rutherford was the Podcast Editor and the audio-video editor for the journal Nature until 2013, being responsible for all the publication's published audio, video, and podcasts. He also published audio interviews with notable personalities, including Paul Bettany on his role playing Charles Darwin in the movie Creation, and David Attenborough in his documentary Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life. He wrote editorials on diverse other topics, ranging from the overlap of art and science to reviews of science-themed movies.
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