Julia King on manipulating metals and decarbonising transport

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Professor Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, is an engineer whose fascination with metals, and skill for handling both research projects and people, has taken her from academia to industry to the House of Lords. She tells Jim Al-Khalili how the dressmaking skills she learnt from her mother as a child helped her to understand the composite structures used in wind turbines later in life. And how she designed metal alloys that are resistant to both large and small cracks. As the author of the UK government's Review of Low Carbon Cars in 2007, Julia set out a route to decarbonising a major segment of the transport sector within 25 years, making an important contribution to the UK's plans to try and achieve Net Zero. But achieving Net Zero is not enough. With demand for electricity set to double or treble by 2050, there’s an urgent need to radically reform our national infrastructure and guarantee supply. Julia became a cross-bench member of the House of Lords in 2015. She’s now chair of its Science and Technology Committee, holding the government to account on its promise to make the UK a science superpower.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.
0:03.7	My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a Load of Sport Podcasts.
0:08.4	I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced
0:12.2	pundits and the biggest sport stars.
0:14.3	Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'
0:18.5	mouths.
0:19.5	But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.
0:25.0	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to
0:28.8	dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:31.2	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:40.7	Hello and welcome to the Life Scientific, the show where I get to talk to some of the world's
0:45.3	leading scientists and you get to find out what motivates and inspires them.
0:50.4	Today I'll be finding out what dress patterns and composite metal structures used to make
0:54.9	winterbines have in common and hearing what the UK needs to do if we're going to adapt
1:00.1	to climate change and become a science superpower.
1:03.5	Basically I like breaking things.
1:06.4	Not my words but those of today's guest, an engineer whose fascination with metals and
1:11.9	skill for handling both research projects and people took her from academia to the aerospace
1:17.0	and marine industries to the House of Lords.
1:19.9	Julia King began her career as an academic and spent 15 years happily investigating the
1:25.2	structure and strength of materials specifically alloys.
1:29.4	She says there's something brilliant about loading a big lump of metal into a machine
	...

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