Martin Evans
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2008
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Professor Sir Martin Evans. He is known as the grandfather of embryonic stem-cell research because of the breakthrough he made more than 25 years ago to first isolate the stem cells of mice and then cultivate them in a laboratory. After that leap forward, he worked alongside his fellow Nobel laureates Oliver Smithies and Mario Capecchi to develop the Knock-Out Mouse - a mouse that has had part of its genetic code disabled so the effect on the animal can be studied. The Knock-Out Mouse has become a scientific tool used the world over - and has vastly increased the amount of knowledge we have about how the human body works.
Brought up on the outskirts of London with enthusiastic and encouraging parents, he says that he was always fascinated by science. But, although he was a bright pupil, he was a shy boy and not the kind of student to walk away with glittering prizes.
He was within months of retiring when he got the call, last October, that he had been awarded the greatest honour in science - the Nobel Prize - since then life has been busier than ever and now, he says, he is determined to use his status to try to encourage children to study science, so that they too can be enthused at the miracles of the world around us and the worlds within.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Their Sound is Gone Out in All Lands by George Frideric Handel Book: Largest anthology of poetry possible Luxury: A microscope, equipment and a stack of notebooks.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping |
| 0:22.7 | you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together |
| 0:28.7 | by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:41.8 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:44.9 | The program was originally broadcast in 2008. |
| 1:09.1 | Music My castaway this week is the Nobel Prize winning scientist Professor Sir Martin Evans, |
| 1:12.4 | the grandfather of embryonic stem cell research, |
| 1:18.0 | the advancements he's made have transformed our knowledge of how and why illnesses affect us. |
| 1:23.9 | In unlocking the potential of embryonic stem cells, his work has illuminated our understanding of cancer, arthritis, heart disease and Parkinson's. |
| 1:33.3 | He's motivated not only as a pioneering scientist, but as a husband, who has seen firsthand the devastating effects of the type of illnesses he has spent his career struggling to understand. |
| 1:39.9 | So Sir Martin, the Nobel Prize then, you were just a couple of months from retiring. |
| 1:44.4 | It was October of last year that you got a call. |
| 1:46.5 | What happened? |
| 1:47.4 | Well, I was near Cambridge in my very oldest clothes, in our car, |
| 1:53.4 | with a sander in the back of the car, I'd just been to the hire shop. |
| 1:57.2 | And I was on my way to my daughter's house, |
| 1:59.4 | where we've been desperately trying to help her |
| 2:01.3 | just clear up enough for the imminent birth of a new grandchild. |
... |
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