History of Medical Sciences Project

“A free fearless expression of a biologist’s philosophy”

Sir Charles Scott Sherrington was born in 1857, and died at the age of 94. He had a rich and varied life and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1932 for his work on neurons and famously coined ‘synapse’. While he may sound of a distant age, he was an inspirational thinker, making new discoveries with great insight and looked at science through the eyes of a philosopher and poet. He considered teaching to be important, and this resource helps bring to life his box of teaching slides together with art to express his philosophy that ‘this pursuit of truth involves emotion’¹. One of Sherrington’s teachers was a poet. His teacher’s influence inspired him to express his feelings and wonder for life through writing. In his 80s he wrote a remarkable book ‘Man on his Nature’ in which he describes the mind as bringing ‘zest-for-life’.

We shared his writing about science as inspiration for art, poetry and philosophy for primary and secondary school pupils with fascinating results. We hope this resource will help spark new ideas for teaching…

Read quotes from Sherrington’s remarkable book (Sherringtons quotes) and look at science through his eyes with renewed zest…

1. Sir Charles Sherrington from ‘Man on his Nature’ (1940)