Peter Mansfield
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2006
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Nobel prize-winning physicist Sir Peter Mansfield. His work in magnetic resonance imaging more than 30 years ago led to the development of the MRI scanner, which has revolutionised the diagnosis of illness today.
He was born in London before the Second World War and as a boy, remembers the first Doodlebug attack on the capital. Watching the flying bombs gave him an interest in rocket propulsion which was to lead to a life-long career in science. The son of a gas-fitter, he left school without O levels at the age of 15. His school careers' officer had laughed at his ambition to be a scientist and fixed him up with a job as a printer. He put himself through night school, and went on to graduate with a first class degree in physics.
The first MRI scan was performed using him as the guinea-pig and with next-of-kin on hand because of the risks involved. His pioneering research was carried out at the University of Nottingham where he became Emeritus Professor of Physics. In 2003 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine at the age of 70.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
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Transcript
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| 0:41.8 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:44.9 | The program was originally broadcast in 2006, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. |
| 0:50.2 | Music My castaway this week is a physicist. His is a story of persistence, determination and sheer hard work, resulting in momentous achievement. |
| 1:16.2 | Just over two years ago, he won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, for his part in the development of the MRI scanner. |
| 1:23.0 | Born and brought up in South London, he's the son of a gas fitter who failed the 11 plus and left school |
| 1:28.4 | at 15, but eventually won a place at university after passing his A-levels while doing his |
| 1:33.6 | national service. He went on to take a job at Nottingham University where, despite tempting |
| 1:38.8 | offers from America, he's more or less remained ever since. It was more than 30 years ago that he started work on the project that's brought him international fame. |
| 1:48.6 | In the beginning, I wasn't thinking about the hundreds of millions of people who might benefit from it, he says. |
| 1:53.6 | I was just thinking about how to get the damn thing to work. |
| 1:56.9 | He is Sir Peter Mansfield. |
| 1:59.3 | Peter, I've been watching some old film of you on Tomorrow's World back in the 70s. |
| 2:04.6 | It was you climbing into the prototype of your MRI scanner. |
| 2:08.8 | Because you had to experiment on yourself in those days, didn't you? |
| 2:12.2 | Initially, yes. |
... |
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