This year's Reith lecturer is the Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College London, Peter Brian Medawar. His work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance has been fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants. In his Reith lecture series entitled 'The Future of Man', Professor PM Medawar considers how humans will continue to evolve in the future.

In his second lecture entitled 'The Meaning of Fitness', Professor PM Medawar defines the scientific meaning of 'fitness' and 'inheritance', and asks whether advances in medicine and hygiene are undermining the fitness of the human race. He explores how we evolve and what consequences our environment has on our genetic development. Show less