Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Nobel Prize-winning physicist best known for isolating graphene, the thinnest and strongest material ever discovered.
On the island
Eight records
Polonaise 'Farewell to Homeland'
classical / instrumental piece performed by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra or similar (as inferred from context; composer stated). Usually performed by an orchestra, no explicit performer given in transcript. Assumed standard canonical title.
Charles Dumont / Michel Vaucaire
performer identified as 'Edith Piaf'; transcript has 'Jenny Regrettor Jan' (obvious ASR error).
transcript has 'Farewell to Slavanka' (common alternative spelling). Performed by Red Army Choir per transcript.
transcript: 'Bachstekaten fugue in D minor' (ASR mangling). Performer: Philip Ledger per transcript; canonical title with standard spelling.
from album 'The Dark Side of the Moon'. No composer field needed as it's a rock band.
transcript: 'the snows of Kilimanjaro' (translation); original French title inferred.
Largo al factotum (Figaro's Aria)
from 'The Barber of Seville'. Transcript: 'Racini's figurous area', 'Figarozaria' – corrected. Performer: Hermann Prey per transcript.
transcript has 'Hachiturian', 'Cachaturin'' – corrected. Conductor: composer (from context).
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:55Tell me more about that notion of being a detective in science. What is it you find pleasurable in that experience?
You know, being an academic it means that you spend a lot of time in the lab, and you try to make it as much fun as possible. … you compete in this kind of Sherlock Holmes experience, trying to get very little information and then guess the finite answer … It's a life long game of a detective.
Presenter asks
12:36What was it like to learn that your parents had been in the Gulag at that relatively late stage in your life?
I think it was … It's explained some things which didn't stick together … and then everything uh fell into the right place and I managed to appreciate better my place in the life and my position within the Soviet Union.
Presenter asks
13:19What are your memories of those early days with your grandmother?
She was very influential. She spoke fluent French, played piano. … she tried to teach me uh how the life is, and uh until she died when I was twenty eight or thirty, uh she was the closest friend ever I had.
The keepsakes
The book
Not recorded.
The luxury
If I may, it would be a bottle of Amaroni, or a better case of it. It's a type of wine I prefer, Italian wine. It's a wine taken from a little bit old grapes, and it's very intense and very viscous wine.
Presenter asks
23:41When you came to the UK with next to nothing, how was your English?
Oh, it was horrible, very basic, and uh my way of speaking irritated people, so it didn't help to establish relations with people. My sense of humour didn't go through
Presenter asks
26:48To what extent do you enjoy interaction with the next generation of scientists [as Regius Professor]?
To be honest, I don't like students very much. They come absolutely ignorant and they are not grown up yet as interesting people, but sometimes over two or three years of their PhD they grow exponentially fast … and after that … we become as a colleagues and we do research as colleagues and that's really enjoyable experience.
Presenter asks
30:24Do you feel more pressure upon your scientific endeavours from here on in, being a Nobel laureate?
On scientific endeavors, no, I don't feel pressure, and uh I work as hard as I was working before the Nobel Prize … but in addition to this scientific background, there are indeed a lot of pressures from different walks of life … I managed to resist most of them. The hardest thing I learn is to kill emails without replying … sometimes it's better not to reply than reply with saying just sorry.
Presenter asks
31:44How do you think you'll be alone on this island? Will you cope?
Unlike most of your interviewees, I know how hard it is to be alone. … it's much worse than being in a solitary confinement in prison where you know that there are guards. But this hostile mountains really makes you scared and unsafe. So I think I'll survive, but it will be a very tough experience. We're social animals, we can't live without other people around.
“the first time I was called Russian actually in England when I came at the age of what thirty-two at the University of Nottingham, I remember quite well that a person told me, Oh, we have this Russian visitor and I ask who who is he? And they tell it's you and I thought, I'm not Russian. Call me Soviet.”
“I was reprimanded in my file, quote, for laughing during taking the military oath.”
“It was my own stupidity. I decided at that time that I'm so experienced with glaciers that I can go anywhere without ropes, and the colour indicated that I was one metre away from the edge of this hidden crevice, and I was wrong.”
“Thank you for providing with this session of Psychotherapy in Public.”