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Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A scientist who originated the Gaia theory, proposing the Earth is a self-regulating living organism.
On the island
Eight records
Guessed from transcript. Exact wording from transcript: 'Steely Dan in Haitian Divorce' – plausible real title, kept verbatim after checking: no obvious ASR error – it's correct.
Samuel Ramey & Kathleen Battle; Berlin Philharmonic; cond. Herbert von Karajan
Transcript says 'L'Accci darem la Mano' – obvious ASR error; corrected to canonical title 'Là ci darem la mano'. 'Herbert von Carrion' corrected to 'Herbert von Karajan'.
Senza mamma (from Suor Angelica)
Renata Scotto; New Philharmonia Orchestra; cond. Lorin Maazel
Transcript: 'Bernato Scotto' → Renata Scotto; 'Lorin Marzell' → Lorin Maazel; 'Soi Angelica' → Suor Angelica. All corrected.
The Tallis Scholars; dir. Peter Phillips
Transcript: 'Sperminalium' → Spem in alium; 'Talis scholars' → The Tallis Scholars; 'Talis' → Tallis.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 (excerpt)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Alfred Prinz, clarinet; cond. Karl Böhm
Transcript: 'Alfred Prince' → Alfred Prinz; 'Carl Berm' → Karl Böhm. Kept as excerpt since no specific movement named.
The Calls and Song of the Black Bird
Transcript says 'some birdsongs, some blackbird calls' and later 'The Calls and Song of the Black Bird'. Kept as an untitled field recording identified by the castaway's own description.
Et incarnatus est (from Mass in C minor, K. 427)Favourite
Kiri Te Kanawa; New Philharmonia Orchestra; cond. Raymond Leppard
Transcript: 'Iliana Kotrabasch' → Kiri Te Kanawa; 'Raymond Lepard' → Raymond Leppard. The castaway refers to it as 'number seven' and his favourite disc.
Transcript says 'Kat Stevens' – obvious ASR error; corrected to Cat Stevens. Track title is correct.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:27It's a very romantic name, Gaia, to give to a scientific theory, the mythological goddess of the earth. Why did you choose it?
Well, I didn't choose it. It was William Golding, the novelist, who chose it. He was a near neighbour of mine and a friend when I lived in Wiltshire at a village called Bowerchalk. And I just had the idea. It was in the early seventies. And I was discussing it with him, trying to tell him about it. And he seemed impressed, and said to me, 'Well, Jim, if you're going to make a theory as big as that, you'd better give it a proper name.' And so I said, 'Well, what?' and he said, 'I'd call it Gaia.' So for a little while I thought he meant GYRE, one of those great whirls that goes round in the ocean, and we walked on for at least ten minutes talking at cross purposes, and only then I realised he meant the Greek goddess Gaia.
Presenter asks
5:09You called yourself an inventor just now – didn't you at one point invent the microwave oven, but omitted to tell anybody you'd done it?
Oh, that was entirely by accident. Let no one blame it on me. … Well, it was in the early fifties and I was working with some colleagues at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill on … cells and tissues when they were frozen. … we used it to reanimate [hamsters] by heating them from the inside. … And that is the principle of a microwave oven … I realised you could use it for heating all sorts of things, and I used to bring my lunch along, some potatoes and whatnot, and cook it in it.
The keepsakes
The book
There would be ample time, really, to savour every word of it and to get to the real feeling of it
The luxury
Presenter asks
10:58Well now, how does the son of a Brixton gas man, a boy who loathes school, end up as an eminent scientist? That's the conundrum you present. Did either of your parents have a scientific bent or an inquisitive mind?
Quite the reverse. I think they had hopes that I might go into the arts in some way or other.
Presenter asks
15:25During the war, you worked at the National Institute for Medical Research. Was the work relevant to the war and its effects?
It was in many ways … We worked on the protection against flash and flame and also on cross infection … [W]e were expected to burn shaved rabbits as test animals. … we couldn't do it. And we just looked at each other … and said, 'Well, there's nothing for it, we'll have to burn ourselves.' And the weird thing was, it was very painful for the first week, but then quite suddenly both of us found that the pain of burning vanished and that we could continue the experiments without any sense of pain of burning.
Presenter asks
24:24It was your work on Mars, wasn't it, that gave you a new view of the Earth. What did you see?
Well, there … I'd better preface it. We've all of us seen that gorgeous picture of the earth from space … but what is less known is that the view of the earth seen through scientific instruments, infra-red analysers and things like that, is just as startling a revelation … The scientific view showed an extraordinary atmosphere. It showed a planet with gases like oxygen and hydrocarbons like methane mixed. … a potentially explosive, combustible mixture.
Presenter asks
28:04Gaia, however, is sick, your theory goes on. She's stricken with a disease, a plague of humans. What are our worst crimes, do you think?
Well, I think I should first of all qualify that slightly. It's a pretty minor sickness as far as the system goes. It's not much worse than chicken pox in a child. … [S]he's had some far worse rough times in the past and has got through those without any trouble at all. … I think there's a lot of hubris in humans and we like to think that we're so potent we can threaten all life on earth. I think this is a lot of nonsense. I think that the main thing we threaten is our own civilisations and ourselves.
“I think there's a lot of hubris in humans and we like to think that we're so potent we can threaten all life on earth. I think this is a lot of nonsense. I think that the main thing we threaten is our own civilisations and ourselves.”
“I don't like the idea of stewardship as applied to humans, because I don't think we reach that state of grace where we're capable of being stewards.”
“Any species that adversely affects the environment will not succeed, it'll be eliminated. Whereas those that favour the environment, favour it for their progeny, will automatically be rewarded.”
“I never expected, approaching seventy, that quite suddenly I would meet someone with whom I would become married, just like almost a teenage love affair.”