Can science make the world a better place? Historian Dr Alice Dreger is an activist for intersex rights. But when she criticized a group of transgender activists for disputing valid scientific findings, she became a target of slander and defamatory attacks herself. It made her reconsider the role and responsibility of scientists and their contribution to social justice. Using this and other recent controversies, she shows what happens when empirical evidence is at odds with political purposes.

After the lecture science journalist Jop de Vrieze will interview Dr Dreger. Should scientists never be activists?

The Night of Descartes is organised yearly in collaboration with the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities. It is a night about the history and philosophy of science.