Robert May

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2012

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jim al-Khalili talks to the former chief scientific advisor, Robert May about restoring public trust in science in the wake of the BSE crisis and at the height of the anti-GM campaigns of the mid-nineties. If he were a species of plant, Bob May says he would be the "weedy type", moving as he has into new fields of science and proliferating rapidly, rather than a more established, specialised variety. He has applied mathematics first to physics, then ecology and, most recently, to banking. Producer: Anna Buckley.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the
0:03.8	podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC.
0:08.6	It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world.
0:15.0	What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism
0:20.0	and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.
0:23.7	And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject
0:28.3	you might not even have thought you were interested in.
0:30.2	Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment,
0:36.2	you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.
0:40.7	Thank you for downloading the Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4.
0:45.0	Lots of people have a bit of a love-hate relationship with science.
0:50.0	They're enthusiastic about the benefits it might bring, and yet at the same time worry about the potential
0:55.4	downsides of any new technology and are concerned about the risks.
1:00.5	My guest today has worked in more areas of science than anyone I know,
1:04.6	moving from chemical engineering to theoretical physics to ecology
1:08.8	and most recently from ecology to banking.
1:11.9	And if you're wondering what all these diverse disciplines have in common,
1:15.0	well you just have to keep listening.
1:17.0	But he's best known, perhaps, for his work as the UK government's chief scientific advisor.
1:22.0	Between 1995 and 2000, Bob May, now Lord
1:26.1	May, advised the government in all manner of controversial issues. Mad cow
1:30.6	disease and GM food to name a couple,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.