Athene Donald
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2009
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the scientist Athene Donald. A Cambridge professor and fellow of the Royal Society, she has dedicated much of her life to studying everyday objects like plastic, food or plants. Her enthusiasm is so strong that, at her daughter's eleventh birthday party, she couldn't resist describing the structure of melting ice-cream - it was a rare case of misjudging her audience.
By her own admission she is a workaholic - but she also champions the cause of women who want to become scientists and have families too. Her great triumph was to marry a supportive husband and after that, she says, the trick is learning how to cut corners: there are no 'dainty dinner parties' at her home, and she makes sure her clothes are machine washable and easy-iron.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: The Dies Irae (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Lymond Novels by Dorothy Dunnett Luxury: A bat.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey, |
| 0:24.7 | History's Youngest Heroes, with me, Nicola Cochlin. |
| 0:27.8 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.4 | Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:35.5 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:38.6 | The program was originally broadcast in 2009. |
| 1:04.5 | Music My castaway this week is the physicist Athenie Donald, a Cambridge professor and fellow of the Royal Society. |
| 1:11.0 | Her life's work has been studying the structure of everyday objects, like plastic or food or plants. |
| 1:16.5 | Her enthusiasm for a subject is so strong that at her daughter's 11th birthday party, |
| 1:19.8 | she couldn't resist describing the molecular structure of melting ice cream. |
| 1:23.1 | It was a rare case of misjudging her audience. |
| 1:26.5 | By her own admission, she was something of a swat at school. |
| 1:31.5 | She was younger than anyone else in her year, and feeling isolated, devoted her energies to work. |
| 1:38.5 | I knew from essentially my first physics lesson when I was 13 years old that I wanted to study physics. |
| 1:41.2 | She adds, I don't do things by halves. |
| 1:44.3 | If I do something, I have to throw myself into it. |
| 1:49.0 | Atheney Donald, let me ask you about that lesson then when I said you were 13 in the physics lesson. |
| 1:49.5 | Yes. |
| 1:50.1 | What happened? |
| 1:52.0 | How did the epiphany emerge? |
| 1:55.2 | It's really hard to look back that far and be sure. I just know that once I did separate sciences and was introduced to physics, it all made sense to me. It was just, |
| 2:02.7 | that's what really turns me on. And 13, a very significant age for a girl in so far as for most |
... |
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