Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Nobel Prize-winning chemist who discovered flash photolysis and is President of the Royal Society.
On the island
Eight records
Andrew Lytton and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Foot tingling music of George Gershwin
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 ('Emperor')
the first one that I ever bought
Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, Portsmouth, directed by Captain LT Lambert
I would like to hear the band of the Royal Marines at Portsmouth playing Trafalgar
Dance a Cachucha, Fandango, Bolero
I remember that was the finale of our concert
Renata Tebaldi and Gianni Poggi
I think is absolutely wonderful
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64: The Death of Tybalt
Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra
the fight between Romeo and Tybalt, when Tybalt is killed
Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
Sir Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
my life has been with universities
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:15Does your love and wonder for science continue even after more than fifty years in the business?
Oh, certainly. It hasn't diminished at all.
Presenter asks
1:54Can you remember your first chemistry lesson?
Well, I was doing chemistry before I had a lesson. ... He gave us some beautiful blue crystals and told us to find out all we could about them. And it was very exciting indeed.
Presenter asks
7:16How did you come across flash photolysis? Was there a Eureka moment?
Yes, in a way there was. I'd been a radar officer in the navy. Radar is pulses a millionth of a second long of radio waves, and I knew all the techniques that were available for handling those pulses. Then I came back and I was given the problem of looking at these very short lived chemical substances by traditional methods. And it just clicked. ... I was in the railway station hotel in Preston. ... and it all clicked.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics
Ilya Prigogine
because it's a tough book and I've never had time to study it properly, and it's something that I am rather interested in working on a little bit myself.
The luxury
it's not so much a luxury as an absolute necessity. I would hate to be without pencil and paper, or better still, a computer and word processor.
Is there room now for God in your world?
No, no. The transition was again rather abrupt, at the age of about fourteen. ... I remember actually standing in front of a window and saying, God, I'm finding it very hard to believe that you're there. Please give me some sign that you are otherwise I shall have to sue your knot. And I got no sign.
Presenter asks
13:22Would you then agree that your religion is science?
Yes, insofar as a religion is a set of beliefs by which you live. I do believe very much in the pursuit of knowledge by scientific or by any method but a logical one. I do not believe in supernatural phenomena.
Presenter asks
21:17Why do you think most of the population are ignorant of science, and why does it go on being so?
I think the simple answer is our educational system. At the age of about fourteen, a boy or girl has to make a decision to do science, or not to do science, which is ridiculous, of course. ... We're going to be terribly short of chemistry and physics and mathematics teachers in the next few years.
“He gave us some beautiful blue crystals and told us to find out all we could about them. And it was very exciting indeed.”
“He bought a bus, an old bus, which he put in in the garden and he rigged out with a chemical bench and so forth. So I had a laboratory and a bus.”
“I remember actually standing in front of a window and saying, God, I'm finding it very hard to believe that you're there. Please give me some sign that you are otherwise I shall have to sue your knot. And I got no sign.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed it. I suppose I was lucky I never got my feet wet.”
“the pursuit of knowledge is the main thing that matters. We we really don't know why we are here. We don't know what it's all about. And there's only one way of dealing with this, and that's to do a research and try and find out.”
“I was asked on arrival in Stockholm what I was going to do with it, and on the spur of the moment I said I think I'll buy myself a boat.”