Science Education

Formerly known as European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences

Our inspiring educational experiences share the scientific discoveries of EMBL with young learners aged 10-19 years and teachers in Europe and beyond. We belong to EMBL’s Science Education and Public Engagement office.

Registration open for EMBL Insight Lecture 2020

ELLS invites secondary schools to register for the EMBL Insight Lecture 2020 which will be held virtually on 11th December 2020 on the topic Discover RNA – the language of genomes”.

The lecture, aimed at students aged 16 to 19 will be given this year by Prof. Matthias W. Hentze, Senior Scientist and Director at EMBL Heidelberg.

DNA is perhaps the most famous biological molecule, serving as storage of all the information required for an organism to live and multiply. To be effective at its job, the DNA molecule must be very stable and, as such, is not very dynamic. Ribonucleic acid (RNA), the less well-known sister of DNA, on the other hand, lives a very different, dynamic and versatile life. As RNA is copied from the DNA genome, scientists sometimes describe it as the active language in which genomes express themselves. In the EMBL Insight Lecture 2020, Prof. Matthias W. Hentze will start by introducing RNA as we know it from textbooks. He will then discuss ‘hot topics’ in current research and open questions scientists in this field of RNA research are working on. In doing so, Prof. Hentze will highlight the importance of RNA-binding proteins as RNA’s versatile companions. He will describe new functions of RNA that have not yet entered the biology textbooks and show how brand-new scientific discoveries can sometimes be obvious only in hindsight.

The language of the event will be English. The event will run from 10:30 to 11:45 CET and will be live-streamed to schools across the globe.

Please find more details, including information on how to register, on our dedicated EMBL Insight Lecture page.