Evolutionary biologist Alice Roberts

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s amazing what we can learn from a pile of old bones. Having worked as a paediatric surgeon for several years (often doing the ward round on roller blades), Alice Roberts spent a decade teaching anatomy to medical students and studying human remains. A niche interest in the collar bone and how it has changed since we evolved from the common ancestor we share with other apes 6 million years ago, led her to some of the biggest questions in science. Who are we? And where do we come from? She is the presenter of several landmark TV series on human evolution and archaeology, such as The Incredible Human Journey and Digging for Britain. And in 2019 she became President of the British Science Association. In conversation with Jim Al Khalili, Alice shares her passion for the bones of our ancient ancestors and of the freshly dead, and describes her own incredible journey from a basement full of medieval bones to an eminent science communicator and public figure. Producer: Anna Buckley

Transcript

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0:28.3	Newscast, listen on BBC sounds.
0:35.0	This is Discovery from the BBC. I'm Jim El Killelli and in today's program I'm in conversation with a leading scientist
0:40.0	about their life and research.
0:42.0	The theme of today's life scientific is bones, human bones.
0:47.0	The bones of the freshly dead, the bones of our prehistoric ancestors,
0:51.0	and the bones of apes like us who died hundreds of thousands of years ago.
0:54.9	Alice Roberts is an anatomist, anthropologist, archaeologist and professor of the
1:00.9	public engagement in science at the University of Birmingham.
1:04.0	She is also an author, a broadcaster and a TV presenter.
1:08.0	And the glue that ties all these disparate threads together, she says,
1:12.0	is her love of teaching. Having qualified as a
1:14.8	doctor and practice medicine for several years she then spent 11 years teaching
1:19.4	anatomy to medical students and studying old bones. A rather niche interest in the evolution
1:25.6	of our collar bones led Alice to some of the biggest questions in science. Who are we
1:30.7	and where did we come from?
1:33.0	She wants to communicate with the widest possible audience, in lecture halls, through her books,
	...

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