Titans of Science: John Zarnecki

The Naked Scientists Podcast

Dr Chris Smith

Science Radio, Engineering, Naked Scientists, Natural Sciences, Technology, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Science

4.6 • 957 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Titans of Science is back with John Zarnecki, a towering figure in the UK's space community. He has played a crucial role in designing instruments for groundbreaking space missions, and has also helped shape Europe's planetary science programme. In this episode, John shares compelling stories from his career with Chris Smith - including the significance of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan, the value of the Hubble Space Telescope, and his early work on rockets in Australia... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Transcript

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0:00.0	All engine running.
0:03.5	Absolutely genius.
0:04.4	Welcome.
0:05.3	Welcome.
0:06.2	This is the show where we bring you science.
0:08.0	What that essentially means is...
0:09.6	Discovery is...
0:10.2	Advances.
0:11.2	Research.
0:11.8	Technology.
0:12.8	Unbelievable.
0:13.7	Without further ado, this is the Naked Scientists.
0:17.3	Hello, welcome to the Naked Scientist podcast, the program that brings you the biggest
0:20.8	breakthroughs and talks to the major movers and shakers in the worlds of science, technology and medicine.
0:27.1	I'm Chris Smith and today is no exception to our mission because Titans of Science is back with John Zarnacki.
0:33.6	His remarkable work in space exploration has helped us to understand the farthest reaches of our solar system.
0:47.4	John Zoneki was born in London on the 6th of November in 1949.
0:52.9	He attended Highgate School in North London, where in 1961, pupils were remarkably given
0:58.4	the day off to go and see the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, who was visiting the tomb
1:03.5	of Karl Marx at nearby Highgate Cemetery.
1:06.9	John was among them.
1:09.0	From an early age, perhaps motivated by seeing Gagarin, John developed a fascination with space.
	...

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