Hello I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co. UK slash radio4. My My castaway this week is the scientist Dr Robert Lange, pioneer teacher, entrepreneur inventor.

He's in the what if business asking the big questions on how to tackle and

treat disease and injury an entirely credible estimate says two billion people's

lives have been affected by the work he's done. Cancer, diabetes, heart

disease, burns and spinal injuries are just a few of the areas to benefit significantly

from his remarkable dedication to discovery. The most cited engineer in history, the lab he

runs at MIT isn't just a petri dish for ideas and innovations, it's also grown a

generation of world-class biochemists devoting their time and energy to making us healthier and

happier. As a child in school he had problems paying attention in class but down in the basement of the

family home his dad who owned a liquor store,

would help him rig up experiments with his little chemistry set, and so began a fascination

with science.

He says, when you were a student, you're judged by how well you answer questions but in life

You're judged by how good your questions are and so Robert Langley welcome

And this idea of always wondering, what if we just, you know, your brain surely must constantly

be mulling over the possibilities of what life and what science holds.

What's the question currently at the forefront of this great brain?

Well, I guess there are quite a few questions we're asking in our laboratory.

I mean, what we're doing is work at the interface of engineering and

materials in medicine. So some of them are, can we create new therapies using

...