Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture, Unknown

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who is the cleverest person in Britain? When Gyles asked this question to readers of his columns last year, one name was mentioned more than any other; that of Martin Rees, Lord Rees of Ludlow, the Astronomer Royal. Lord Rees is one of the most distinguished scientists in the country, a former President of the Royal Society and a Cambridge fellow. He wrote the first papers on quasars (a type of black hole) and he, alongside other greats such as Dennis Sciama and Stephen Hawking, helped to develop our understanding of the origins of the universe. He is also, Gyles discovers, a man of incredible modesty who just got into science because "he wasn't much good at anything else". This is a wide-ranging conversation which takes in not only Rees's childhood in Shropshire and early academic career, but also includes discussions of the big bang, the future of the earth, and what happens to scientists when they get old. Plus, there's a bombshell revelation about Sir Isaac Newton. This is one of our most profound and intelligent Rosebuds yet: which isn't surprising, given our guest. Thank you, Martin Rees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.9	Sit in quietly once you've made the house all shiny.
0:34.6	Down time can be just fine, bangers from their 90s.
0:38.3	Tea break.
0:39.3	Lunch break.
0:40.3	Maybe listen to the outbreak.
0:42.3	Sometimes it's not time for some tombola, right?
0:45.3	It's enjoying lasagna time, chilling with a book time, or time to visit your nan time.
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0:59.0	aware.org summer and sunshine and falling in love when i was a little boy i saw a musicalad Days, and it's still in my head all these years later.
1:16.0	I love summertime, and I hope if you're out for a walk, or if you want to feel you're out for a walk, you'll listen to this and feel, we'll feel summary, because this is another episode of Rosebud.
1:28.2	Yeah, cure the music. Right from the beginning with Rosebud, I wanted us to interview some of the most remarkable and significant people of our time. And we're doing
2:02.1	just that. We began with Dame Judy Dench. We came on to, well, various dames, Knights of the
2:09.3	Realm, from Sir Michael Palin to Sekeir Stama. So people who are recognised because they've
2:15.7	won Oscars or BAFTAs or because they aspire to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
2:21.3	people come on to Rosebud and share with us their earliest memories.
2:26.3	But I also wanted to talk to people who might not be necessarily household names,
	...

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