David Robert Grimes

Physicist, cancer researcher and journalist Dr David Robert Grimes argues that our ability to think critically has never been more important in a world dominated by fake news, mistrust of experts, prejudice and ignorance.

Grimes says the ability to think clearly and critically has helped save the world, citing the example of the Russian soldier monitoring the Soviet Union’s early warning system in 1983 who reasoned that the evidence of US missiles heading for Russia was more likely an error than the outbreak of nuclear war. Grimes says we can use critical thinking and scientific method to everything from deciding what insurance to buy to averting global disaster.

Grimes is a postdoctoral fellow at Queen’s University Belfast and visiting fellow at the University of Oxford. He contributes to discussion on science, politics and the media on the BBC and RTE and has written for the Guardian, Irish Times and Spectator.