BSPS Popper Prize Lecture: Do molecules have structure?
In February, LSE Philosophy hosted the BSPS Popper Prize lecture, delivered by philosophers of science Alexander Franklin and Vanessa Seifert. The video of the lecture is now available online!
We learn from a young age that molecules have particular structures – these are the ball and stick models beloved of chemists: water is H2O and has a V-shape, methane is a pyramid, and diamonds are networks of tetrahedra. Molecular structure is used to explain reactivity, biological function, and even colour. However, if we attempt to develop a quantum physical account of structure from first principles, there is no apparent structure to be found. Chemists and philosophers of chemistry have named this puzzle ‘the problem of molecular structure’. In their prize-winning paper philosophers Vanessa Seifert and Alexander Franklin argued that this puzzle can be solved by any account that settles the long-standing quandary of Schrödinger’s cat! In their talk Vanessa Seifert and Alexander Franklin set out aspects of their research that illuminate the fundamental nature of the puzzling and bizarre quantum world.
About the Prize Lecture
The British Society for the Philosophy of Science is a professional organisation which furthers the study of the logic, methods and philosophy of science in the UK. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (BJPS) is the Society’s journal, and its Editors, in conjunction with the BSPS Committee, awards the BJPS Popper Prize annually to the best paper published in BJPS in the preceding year. The winning authors are invited to deliver the BJPS Popper Prize Lecture.
Link to the lecture.BSPS Popper Prize Lecture 2025: Do molecules have structure?
