The Runaway World

The Reith Lectures

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.2 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2010

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THE REITH LECTURES 2010 4. The Runaway World

In the last Reith Lecture of 2010, Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, explores how fast our world is moving in the 21st century. Speaking at the Open University in Milton Keynes, the home of online learning, he acknowledges how the internet and other technologies have transformed our lives. Now he calls on politicians and other authorities to provide the funding that will keep the UK among the world's front runners in scientific research and discovery. Without money and without education to attract young people into science, the UK is in danger of falling behind China and other countries in the Far East that are investing heavily in their science and technology sectors. Professor Rees ends his series of lectures evoking memories of the 'glorious' Ely Cathedral, near Cambridge, a monument built to last a thousand years. If we, like the cathedral builders, redirect our energies and focus on the long-term, he believes together we can solve the problems that face our planet, and secure its future for billions of people worldwide and for generations to come. Producer: Kirsten Lass Editor: Sue Ellis.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Martin Rees. Thank you for downloading this podcast of the 2010 Reith Lectures from the BBC.
0:07.2	You can find out more, listen again, read transcripts and subscribe to the podcast at BBC.co.com.
0:14.7	com.com. Hello and welcome to the Open University in Milton Keynes for the fourth and last of this year's BBC Reith Lectures.
0:25.8	This is one of the biggest universities in the world, but you won't see many students on its campus.
0:31.7	Thanks to the invention first of television and then of the silicon chip, it reaches the people it teaches remotely. Today, through
0:39.1	the network we call the World Wide Web. In this series, our lecturer has been lifting our gaze
0:45.3	across the frontiers of science, a journey in which we've been shown both the bright and the
0:50.4	dark sides of scientific development. Tonight, he urges us not to flag,
0:55.9	but to keep pace with the constantly expanding body of knowledge
0:59.6	that brings so many benefits to mankind.
1:02.8	Ladies and gentlemen, can I ask you please to welcome
1:05.5	the BBC's Reith Lecturer 2010,
1:08.6	President of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees.
1:22.9	Martin, you said before that it's easier to understand the cosmos than it is the frog.
1:29.0	I find that counterintuitive.
1:31.2	I mean, after all, you can hold a frog in your hand.
1:32.8	You can cut it up on the laboratory bench.
1:35.5	And there is the cosmos.
1:36.9	How do you explain that?
1:37.8	Why do you say that?
1:39.5	Well, I say that because a star is actually fairly simple.
1:43.2	It's so hot inside.
	...

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