Oren Harman goes deep into what Darwin’s called his greatest single riddle: where do giving and altruism come from?

Oren Harman is the Chair of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society at Bar Ilan University. He was trained in history and biology at the Hebrew University, Oxford, and Harvard, and is a historian of biology and a writer. He teaches evolutionary theory, the interplay between scientific, social, and philosophical thought, and writing. He is especially fascinated by the juxtaposition of the transcendence of nature’s laws with the frailties and peculiarities of the transient human experience. His books include The Man Who Invented the Chromosome (Harvard, 2004), Rebels, Mavericks and Heretics in Biology [with Michael Dietrich] (Yale, 2008), and The Price of Altruism (W.W. Norton, 2010) (Bodley Head/Random House, 2010). He is a frequent contributor to The New Republic, and the co-creator of the Israeli Oscar-nominated documentary series “Did Herzl Really Say That?”. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The London Times, Nature, Science, The Economist, Forbes, New Scientist, Times Higher Education, Discover, The Huffington Post, and many others. He grew up in Jerusalem and now lives in Tel Aviv.