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BBC Radio 4


Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future


The Life Scientific

What's it like living underwater for two weeks? What's the trickiest part of training to be an astronaut? What are the most memorable sights you see from space?
Several extreme questions, all of which can be answered by one man: Major Tim Peake.

After a childhood packed with outdoor adventures, via the Cub Scouts and school Cadet Force, Tim joined the British Army Air Corps and became a military flying instructor then a test pilot; before eventually being selected as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut.

In 2015, Tim became the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station. Over the course of a six-month mission, he took part in more than 250 scientific experiments and worked with more than two million schoolchildren across Europe.

In a special New Year’s episode recorded in front of an audience at London’s Royal Society, Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to Tim about his lifelong passion for adventure, the thrill of flight and why scientific experiments in space are so important.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Lucy Taylor

Tim Peake on his journey to becoming an astronaut and science in space

What does it take to earn the nickname, ‘The Leonardo da Vinci of heart surgery’?

That's the moniker given to today's guest - a man who pioneered high-profile and often controversial procedures, but also helped drive huge medical progress; carrying out around 2,000 heart transplants and 400 dual heart-lung transplants during his 60-year career.

Sir Magdi Yacoub is Emeritus Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Imperial College London, and Director of Research at Harefield Hospital’s Magdi Yacoub Institute.
Inspired by a surgeon father and impacted by the tragic early death of his aunt from a heart condition, his medical career includes various surgical firsts alongside numerous research projects, to further our understanding of and ability to treat heart disease. He headed up the teams that discovered it is possible to reverse heart failure, and that successfully grew part of a human heart valve from stem cells for the first time. 

But it hasn't always been plain sailing. At times, his work – such as early, unsuccessful transplant attempts, or using a baboon as a life-support system for a baby – attracted serious public criticism.

Speaking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Sir Magdi reflects on the highs and lows of his cardio career, and offers his advice to the next generation of surgeons and researchers hoping to make their mark in heart medicine. 

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Lucy Taylor

Sir Magdi Yacoub on pioneering heart transplant surgery

Elephants are the largest living land mammal and today our plant is home to three species: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant.

But a hundred thousand years ago, in the chilly depths of the Ice Age, multiple species of elephant roamed the earth: from dog-sized dwarf elephants to towering woolly mammoths.

These gentle giants' evolutionary story and its parallels with that of humankind has long fascinated Dr Tori Herridge, a senior lecturer in evolutionary biology at the University of Sheffield, where - as a seasoned science broadcaster - she's also responsible for their Masters course in Science Communication.

Tori has spent much of her life studying fossil elephants and the sites where they were excavated; trying to establish facts behind relics that are far beyond the reach of Radio Carbon Dating. To date she's discovered dwarf mammoths on Mediterranean islands, retraced the groundbreaking Greek expedition of a female palaeontologist in the early 1900s, and even held an ancient woolly mammoth’s liver. (Verdict: stinky.)

But as she tells Profesor Jim Al-Khalili, this passion for fossil-hunting is not just about understanding the past: this information is what will help us protect present-day elephants and the world around them for future generations.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Tori Herridge on ancient dwarf elephants and frozen mammoths

Doyne Farmer is something of a rebel. Back in the seventies, when he was a student, he walked into a casino in Las Vegas, sat down at a roulette table and beat the house. To anyone watching the wheel spin and the ball clatter to its final resting place, his choice of number would’ve looked like a lucky guess. But knowing the physics of the game and armed with the world’s first wearable computer, which he’d designed, a seemingly random win was actually somewhat predictable.

Doyne is an American scientist and entrepreneur who pioneered many of the fields that define the scientific agenda of our time, from chaos theory and complex systems to wearable computing. He uses big data and evermore powerful computers to apply complex systems science to the economy, to better predict our future. Much like roulette, economics can appear random but, with the right tools and understanding, it is anything but.

Now Director of the Complexity Economics Programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford, Doyne says there’s a real need to act, to use these powers of prediction to help resolve one of the most pressing questions of our time - how best to prevent climate change.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Beth Eastwood

Doyne Farmer on making sense of chaos for a better world

Surgeons often have to deal with the consequences of violent attacks - becoming all too familiar with patterns of public violence, and peaks around weekends, alcohol-infused events and occasions that bring together groups with conflicting ideals.

Professor Jonathan Shepherd not only recognised the link between public violence and emergency hospital admissions, he actually did something about it. 

As a senior lecturer in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the early 1980s, Jonathan started looking into this trend - and his research revealed that most violent assaults resulting in emergency hospital treatment are not reported to police. 

As a result, he devised the ‘Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention’: a programme where hospitals share data about admissions relating to violent attacks with local authorities. He also went on to study various aspects of violent assault and deliver evidence-based solutions - from alcohol restrictions in hotspots, to less breakable beer glasses in pubs. 

The impacts have been significant, delivering reductions in hospital admissions and in violent attacks recorded by police; not only in Cardiff, but in cities around the world where the model is used. Today, as an Emeritus Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Cardiff University - where he’s also Director of their Crime, Security and Intelligence Innovation Institute - Jonathan continues to bring together the medical sector with local authorities, finding practical ways to make cities and their residents safer. 

But his career, straddling the worlds of practise, science and policy, is an unusual one; here he talks to Professor Jim Al-Khalili about what drove him to make a difference.

Presentedby Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Lucy Taylor

Jonathan Shepherd on a career as a crime-fighting surgeon

How much information can you extract from a burnt fragment of human bone? 

Quite a lot, it turns out - not only about the individual, but also their broader lives and communities; and these are the stories unearthed by Jacqueline McKinley, a Principal Osteoarchaeologist with Wessex Archaeology.

During her career, Jackie has analysed thousands of ancient burial sites across the British Isles, bringing to life the old traditions around death via often cremated human remains. She's also assisted criminal investigators with forensic analysis, and contributed to some of the UK's best-loved archaeological TV shows.
And one thing she’s absolutely clear about: far from being macabre, osteoarchaeology is more about the living, than the dead...

In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Jackie talks about the stories we can derive from skeletal remains, how western attitudes to death have gone through a major recent shift, and why she's kept some of her late father's bones.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Jacqueline McKinley on unearthing bones and stories at Britain's ancient burial sites

Have you ever pondered the fact that the universe is expanding? And not only that, it's expanding at an increasing speed - meaning everything around us is getting further and further away? 

If that isolating thought makes you feel slightly panicked, don't worry: this programme also contains wine!

Brian Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor of Astrophysics at the Australian National University, known for his work on supernovae: massive explosions that take place when stars come to the ends of their lives. They are among the most energetic events in the universe and incredibly difficult to find; but that’s what his High-Z Supernova Search Team did, identifying enough of these rare and distant explosions to measure just how fast they were moving away from us.

This led them to the realisation that, contrary to long-held belief in cosmology, the expansion of the universe was speeding up; a discovery which earned Brian a share of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics. As if that wasn't enough, he's gone on to discover one of the earliest stars in the universe; run a university; and become a winemaker, at his very own vineyard just outside Canberra.

In a conversation spanning the genius phraseology of writer Douglas Adams, the importance of pisco sours, and the similarities between astronomy and viticulture, Brian tells Professor Jim Al-Khalili how his supernovae breakthrough paved the way for a revolution in astronomy - and where the field needs to go next...

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Brian Schmidt on Nobel Prize-winning supernovae and the joys of making wine

Welcome to a world where medicine meets politics: a space that brings together scientific research, government wrangling, public push-back and healthcare conspiracies…

Dr Anthony Fauci was the Director of America’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades, during which time he not only helped study, treat and prevent viruses such as HIV/AIDS and Covid-19; he also advised seven US Presidents, from Ronald Regan through to Joe Biden.

Along the way, Tony Fauci's picked up a public profile and taken a fair amount of flack; not least because of his complicated relationship with President Donald Trump. But he's also made great strides in medical research and policy, from working with activists who initially challenged him on the government response to HIV/AIDS - to spearheading the USA's PEPFAR project to share vital medication with developing nations.

In a candid conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Tony discusses his childhood in Brooklyn, the dark early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, lessons from the Covid-19, his hopes and fears for the future of American health policy – and his reaction to that pre-emptive pardon from President Biden.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Anthony Fauci on a medical career navigating pandemics and presidents

A frozen, white world at the far-reaches of the globe, where you're surrounded by snow and silence, might sound rather appealing. Factor in temperatures that drop to -57°C and a few of us might be put off - but for glaciologist Liz Morris, that's very much her happy place.

Liz is an Emeritus Associate at the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, and was among the first British women scientists to work on the planet’s coldest continent, Antarctica. Over the course of her career, Liz has gathered vital data on polar ice sheets and how they’re affected by climate change. She's also made numerous research trips across the Greenland Ice Shelf, and has a glacier named after her in Antarctica.

In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Liz discusses her fascination with glaciers and ice - and explains her unwavering determination to break into what was once a heavily male-dominated field.
 

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Liz Morris on Antarctic adventures and the melting polar ice sheets

When you think of Artificial Intelligence, does it inspire confidence, or concern?

Although it's now generally accepted that this technology will play a major role in our future, a lot of conversations around AI and machine learning come back to the argument over us losing control and robots taking over. 

Happily, Neil Lawrence has a more optimistic view of the power of AI, and how we might navigate the potential pitfalls. Neil is the DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, and over the course of his career has been involved in deploying AI and machine learning in both academic and commercial scenarios, with a stint at Amazon as well as working across fields as varied as movie animation, Formula 1 strategy, and medical research.

Speaking with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Neil says ultimately his efforts are all about making a difference to our everyday lives - and that we need to learn how to embrace AI, albeit with a healthy dollop of scepticism; not least when it comes to how our data is used, and the power of 'the digital oligarchy'...

Presented by JIm Al-Khalili
Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Neil Lawrence on taking down the 'digital oligarchy' and why we shouldn't fear AI

For a long time Fay Dowker was mathematically precocious, but emotionally uncertain. These days, despite working in an area with few academic allies, she is more confident than ever. Her approach to a Theory of Everything, known as causal set theory, acknowledges the quantum nature of the universe and takes the arrow of time more seriously than Einstein. Bye bye time travel. Fay started her Life Scientific working on the assumption that the texture of the universe was continuous and smooth, with Stephen Hawking as her supervisor. But mid-career, she changed her mind. She now thinks in terms of 'atoms' of space-time. Down at the tiniest scale imaginable, the universe is granular, made of discrete entities that represent a point in space and a moment in time. Most theoretical physicists were shocked to discover in 1998 that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating. Not the causal set theorists. Unlike everyone else, they were expecting this result. What's more, if causual set theory is right, there will be no need to explain dark energy, an idea which seems 'just wacky and a little bit malicious', to Fay. 

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Fay Dowker on a new theory of space-time

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