This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast marks the centenary of JBS Haldane's Daedalus, a lecture – subsequently a book – that pioneered the idea of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Sandy Starr (Deputy Director of PET)

⚫ Samanth Subramanian (author of the book A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of JBS Haldane)

⚫ Professor Max Saunders (author of the book Imagined Futures: Writing, Science, and Modernity in the 'Today and Tomorrow' Book Series)

⚫ Professor Nick Hopwood (author of the forthcoming book The Many Births of the Test-Tube Baby)

⚫ Dr Chloe Romanis (Assistant Professor in Biolaw at Durham University, and author of research and commentary on ectogenesisis)

February 2023 marked the centenary of Daedalus, a landmark lecture given in Cambridge by the geneticist, polymath and provocative public intellectual JBS Haldane. With this lecture, Haldane introduced the idea of assisted reproductive technology and specifically in vitro fertilisation (IVF) into the public imagination.

The Daedalus lecture so unsettled Haldane's friend Aldous Huxley, that it prompted Huxley to publish the famous dystopian novel Brave New World. Meanwhile, Haldane's student Anne McLaren would go on to do pioneering work with mice in the 1950s that paved the way for IVF, in some sense helping to bring Haldane's imagination to life. McLaren also went on to pioneer the regulation of IVF in the 1980s, as part of the Warnock Committee, thereby helping to reassure the public that the extremes of Haldane's vision would be moderated.

The Daedalus lecture became a milestone in public engagement with science when it was adapted by Haldane into a book later in 1923, becoming the first volume in the influential Today and Tomorrow series. These books, which ran for more than 150 volumes from 1923-1931, sought to make controversial issues in science and technology accessible to the general public. The series included a rebuttal to Haldane's Daedalus by another Cambridge luminary, Bertrand Russell. The series also provoked responses from public figures ranging from Winston Churchill to Evelyn Waugh.

Finally, Haldane used the Daedalus lecture to coin the term 'ectogenesis' – which entails not just IVF as we know it, but taking human reproduction outside the human body altogether. Full ectogenesis remains a distant prospect, but some inroads have been made into the partial ectogenesis of animals, and there have also been advances in in vitro gametogenesis – creating sperm and eggs in the laboratory. The far-reaching ethical and philosophical implications of such technologies continue to be debated.

This discussion saw experts and commentators explore Haldane's legacy over the past 100 years of reproductive technology, and consider what the next 100 years might have in store.

PET is grateful to the Anne McLaren Memorial Trust Fund and Cambridge Reproduction for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.