Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An astronomer and Royal Society professor known for his work on cosmic evolution and as Astronomer Royal.
On the island
Eight records
String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2, 'Razumovsky' (2nd movement)
I chose this particular movement because I read that Beethoven was inspired to write it by looking up at the stars and thinking about the music of the spheres.
Sea Pictures, Op. 37: III. Sabbath Morning at Sea
Dame Janet Baker, London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
I grew up in Shropshire, and I couldn't think of a great Shropshire composer, but over the border in Worcestershire, of course, is the land of Edward Elgar, and I thought I would choose an Elgar piece.
Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1, 'Military'
When I learnt the piano as a child I very much wanted to play this particular piece for some reason, that I was always frustrated that I could never get beyond the first few bars before making some major goof.
Requiem, Op. 48: VII. In ParadisumFavourite
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Cleobury
I'm based in Cambridge and I'm also a member of King's College and that of course is famous for its marvellous choir and so I wanted to have at least one record by the King's College Choir
Götterdämmerung: Siegfried and Brünnhilde's Duet
Bernd Aldenhoff, Birgit Nilsson, Bavarian State Orchestra, conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch
I'm not really a Wagnerian, but I do like the noise it makes, and I recall the experience of seeing Wagner on the stage for the first time
My wife, Caroline, is another academic, but of a very different kind from me. She's an anthropologist who spends a lot of time in eastern Siberia on collective farms and among the nomads of Mongolia. And I thought I would have a short extract from a Mongolian chant as a great contrast
Anne Sofie von Otter, Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by James Levine
Just about three months ago I happened to hear the Brahms Alto Rhapsody. That led me to buy a record of it which I then played over and over again. I think it's a marvellous piece.
English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Tate
Richard Strauss is an example of a composer who made a great noise both literally and metaphorically when he was in his twenties, but went on until his eighties and produced some of his greatest works in his extreme old age.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:28What does the Astronomer Royal do?
Well, Astronomer Royal is a rather antique title. It dates back to the 17th century. It used to be the person who ran the Greenwich Observatory, but for the last 25 years it's just been an honorary title given to a senior astronomer. And my day job, as it were, is as a professor at Cambridge University, and I hold this title, which is a purely honorary one.
Presenter asks
1:38How can the cosmos be simpler to understand than a frog?
Well, it inspires tremendous awe and it's immense in scale, but it is amazing that we have been able to understand quite a lot about our cosmic origins… And the reason I think we can do this is that, in a sense, the universe, though large, is simple in it it's governed by universal laws that we can understand. Whereas something like an animal is much more complicated because although it's small, it has got far more layers of structure in it.
Presenter asks
6:45When did you decide to become an astronomer?
In fact, I wasn't someone who right from an early age had a definite direction of where they wanted to go. When I was young, I was very interested in science and how things worked. But I think honestly, what happened was that when I was at school, I found that I was good at maths and science, rather bad at languages. So actually, it was my badness at Greek and Latin which perhaps steered me most towards studying science and maths in my final years at school, which then led on to me doing those subjects at university.
The keepsakes
The book
Gary Larson
I thought I'd choose Gary Larson's collected cartoons to remind me of the uh idiocies and surreal aspects of the world I'd be cut off from.
The luxury
I was going to choose what I think is called a Jefferson chair. This is sort of reclining chair which Thomas Jefferson invented where you can have a sort of swivel table and a lamp and if I can have a little telescope swiveling onto it so much the better so I can sit back and contemplate and read comfortably.
Presenter asks
15:17Could there be other intelligent life out there, or are we some kind of fluke?
Well, that's about the most important question we can ask, really. And unfortunately, we're far from answering it, in my opinion, because it's really a question for biologists, not a question for astronomers, because astronomers can say that there are almost certainly other planets around other stars, there are other solar systems… But what we don't know is whether life gets started automatically when you have the right environment.
Presenter asks
30:14Have we lost our scientific vitality in Britain, and is it simply a matter of money?
I think it might be too strong to say we've lost the vitality. We are still probably the number two nation to the United States in science. But I think there is a issue of the prestige and standing of science, particularly among young people… and I think it's important to enthuse young people with science because all too often at the age of fifteen or sixteen young people are turned off science and under our over specialized education system that of course means that they may foreclose the option of ever studying any science in depth.
“The fact that things are big doesn't in itself mean that they are harder to understand than everyday things we find here on Earth.”
“We can think of our entire galaxy, our Milky Way, as a sort of ecosystem where atoms are being recycled through one star and then through our sun, and of course when our sun dies, perhaps through other stars in future.”
“In science, your work doesn't have the same individuality as it does in the arts.”
“Even the modest contribution to science become part of the corpus of public knowledge, as it were. So we all feel that we are contributing something which is durable, even though in general the identity of who discovered that particular bit will be forgotten.”