John Horgan was born in the United States in 1953. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1982 and a Master of Science from Columbia University's School of Journalism in 1983.
Horgan was a senior writer at Scientific American from 1986 to 1997. He is best known for his first book published in 1996 titled The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Science in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. The controversial, bestselling book featured a series of essays in which he interviewed figures including Roger Penrose, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson and others. In 1999, Horgan wrote The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication and Explanation.
In 2005, Horgan became the Director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. Horgan has written other books as well as articles for The New York Times, National Geographic, Time and other publications.
Horgan delivered the Beatty Lecture on January 21, 1996, titled “The End of Science”.
Download a PDF of John Horgan's Beatty Lecture transcript 
here.
Transcript: McGill University Archives
Image: Paul Horgan
