[11][10] Blakemore won a state scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,[11] where he gained a BA degree (first-class honours) in Medical Sciences in 1965, and was promoted to an MA in 1969.

[12] Blakemore obtained his PhD degree in physiological optics at the University of California, Berkeley,[11] in the United States, as a Harkness Fellow in 1968.

[20] In July 2001, he was one of the signatories to a letter published in The Independent which urged the Government to reconsider its support for the expansion of maintained religious schools,[18] and was one of the 43 scientists and philosophers who signed and sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair and relevant government departments, concerning the teaching of creationism in schools in March 2002.

[21] and was one of the signatories to a letter supporting a holiday on Charles Darwin's birthday,[22] published in The Times on 12 February 2003, and sent to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.

[26] Blakemore first visited China in 1974, during the Cultural Revolution, and collaborated in research at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

[28] Blakemore's research focused on vision,[29][30][31] the early development of the brain and, more recently, conditions such as stroke and Huntington's disease.

[citation needed] His contribution to neuroscience included his role in establishing the concept of neuronal plasticity, the capacity of the brain to reorganise itself as a result of the pattern of activity passing through its connections.

in the late 1960s Blakemore was one of the first to demonstrate that the visual part of the cerebral cortex undergoes active, adaptive change during a critical period shortly after birth, and he argued that this helps the brain to match itself to the sensory environment.

Blakemore showed that the visual parts of the human cortex become responsive to input from the other senses, especially touch, in people who have been blind since shortly after birth.

[34] In parallel with his academic career, Blakemore championed the communication of science and engagement with the public on controversial and challenging aspects.

[35] In 1976, at the age of 32, he was the youngest person to give the BBC Reith Lectures[36] for which he presented a series of six talks entitled Mechanics of the Mind.

He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1982–3, and wrote and presented many other programmes about science, including a 13-part series, The Mind Machine on BBC television, a radio series about artificial intelligence, Machines with Minds, and a documentary for Channel 4 television, God and the Scientists.

He was a member of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (the Stewart Committee) in 1999–2000 and was an advisor to the Police Federation and the Home Office on the safety of telecommunications systems.

[44] He was also among a number of top scientists who successfully campaigned with Humanists UK for a ban on the teaching of creationism as scientifically valid in England,[45] and later in Wales,[46] and for evolution to be embedded in the science curriculum.

[7] He came to the attention of the animal rights movement while at Oxford University in the 1980s, when he carried out research into amblyopia and strabismus, conducting experiments that involved sewing kittens' eyelids shut from birth in order to study the development of their visual cortex.

"[7] Subsequently, according to The Observer, he and his family "endured assaults by masked terrorists, bombs sent to his children, letters laced with razor blades, a suicide bid by his wife, and more than a decade of attacks and abuse.

[48] Blakemore launched a national roadshow to consult the scientific community and quickly changed the mechanisms for handling funds, rationalised the grant schemes, introduced new forms of support for young researchers and overhauled the communications policies of the MRC.

Soon after his appointment to the MRC The Sunday Times published a leaked British Cabinet Office document that suggested he was deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the 2004 New Year's Honours List because of his research on animals – research considered "controversial" by a British government committee that oversees matters of science and technology despite being widely supported by political leaders and the public.

How can I now go to our scientists, and ask them to risk talking about animal research, when there now appears to be evidence that in secret the government disapproves it, even though in public they've strongly encouraged it?

[52]A parliamentary inquiry investigating the matter implicated the Honours Committee's subcommittee for science and technology[53] chaired by Sir Richard Mottram.

As part of the consultation process a taskforce was convened, with Blakemore as chairman, to consider options for the size and location of the new NIMR.

[57] During the process a number of senior staff at NIMR, including the then director, Sir John Skehel, opposed a move being proposed as the only option,[58] saying "staying at Mill Hill should be considered.

They found "no specific credible evidence" to support the complaint,[61] reporting the allegation "would have carried more weight had it been made at the time rather than in public during the final stages of the decision making process when relations between NIMR and MRC management had fallen into mutual animosity".

[66][35] Blakemore was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2021, and died at Sobell House Hospice in Oxford on 27 June 2022, at the age of 78.