14/10/2026
One-day interdisciplinary conference: "Frozen Accidents: Fixed Choices and Enduring Legacies"
Friday, November 20, 2026
HiCSA research center, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Galerie Colbert - 2, rue Vivienne - Paris 2e - Paris 2e - Salle Vasari (1er étage, entrée libre dans la limite des salles disponibles)
🔷 Presentation
In 1968, Francis Crick suggested that the genetic code might be a “frozen accident”: an arbitrary outcome of historical chance that, once established, could never be undone.
But are frozen accidents really frozen? Can they be reversed, or escaped? Are some apparently contingent outcomes inevitable after all? And do frozen accidents even exist?
Frozen Accidents: Fixed Choices and Enduring Legacies brings biologists, art historians, and literary scholars together to explore these questions. We will take Crick’s idea as a starting point, not as settled truth, and ask where it helps us think, where it breaks down, and what happens when very different disciplines take on the same question.
Every talk is designed for non-specialists, so no expertise in any particular field is needed to follow the discussion. Debate is not only welcome: it is the point.
Organized by Sefy Hendler, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (HiCSA), and Oded Rechavi, Tel Aviv University, the conference welcomes colleagues, students, and anyone curious about these questions.
🔷 Program
Each presentation consists of a 30-minute talk followed by 5 minutes for questions and discussion.
09:00–09:15 — Welcome
Sefy Hendler, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (HiCSA), and Oded Rechavi, Tel Aviv University
09:15–09:50 — Science
Nick Lane, University College London
The original frozen accident – is it real?
09:50–10:25 — Art
Sefy Hendler, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (HiCSA)
Not a Feature, a Bug: Ex Uno Lapide Between Ancient Myth and Renaissance Construction
10:25–10:45 — Coffee break
10:45–11:20 — Science
Virginie Courtier, Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS / Université Paris Cité
Frozen accidents over the course of genetic evolution
11:20–11:55 — Art
Guillaume Cassegrain, Université Grenoble Alpes
Débusquer les rats. L’histoire de l’art et la question animale
12:00–13:30 — Lunch
13:30–14:05 — Art / Literature
Eran Horowitz, Université Grenoble Alpes
In a Frozen Environment There Are No Accidents
14:05–14:40 — Science
Martin M. Hanczyc, University of Trento
Animated Droplets
14:40–15:00 — Coffee break
15:00–15:35 — Art
Francesco Benelli, University of Bologna
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and James T. Reason on Ancient Roman Topography
15:35–16:10 — Science
Oded Rechavi, Tel Aviv University
The cold never bothered me anyway
16:10–16:45 — Art
Carolina Mangone, Princeton University
Michelangelo’s “Non-Finito” and Rodin’s Modernity: A Frozen Historiographical Accident?
16:45–17:15 — General discussion
Do frozen accidents exist? If they do, can they be unfrozen?
17:15–17:30 — Closing
Summary and closing remarks