Turing on the new £50 note, Moon landing on the radio, 25 years since Shoemaker-Levy comet

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Code-breaker and father of computer science, Alan Turing has been chosen to celebrate the field of science on the new £50 note. Adam Rutherford asks Chief Cashier at the Bank of England, Sarah Johns how and why he was selected and he asks Sue Black, Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University, who campaigned to save Bletchley Park, what this accolade means. In 1969, while millions watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on the television, BBC radio was providing scientific and engineering commentary throughout the day. One young scientist brought in to help interpret the lunar landscape was Lionel Wilson, at the time he had just finished his PhD on the mechanics of the Moon's surface. But after seeing evidence of ancient lava fields in the pictures beamed back to Earth, he changed the course of his career and spent the next 50 years studying volcanology on Earth and in space. 25 years ago, the planet Jupiter was peppered with over 20 cometary impacts, this had never been seen before. The comet was Shoemaker Levy 9, which had already broken into icy pieces. Its fiery death had been foretold a year earlier when calculations showed its orbit was due to cross Jupiter's. As D-day approached, July 16 1994, experts wondered whether there would be fireworks, or a fizzle, they weren't disappointed. Producer - Fiona Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
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0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
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0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:41.6	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:45.0	Hello You, this is Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 18th of July 2019, I'm Adam Rutherford.
0:52.0	Now, space anniversaries are all the rage this week,
0:55.0	and we're in the throes of the 50th of Apollo 11,
0:58.0	and we've tracked down Radio 4's coverage,
1:00.0	and the scientists commentating for Radio 4 in 1969, then he was just out of his PhD, he's
1:06.6	now an emeritus professor.
1:08.8	And it's not all about the moon.
1:10.3	25 years ago today, a fragmented comet crashed into Jupiter and we caught the whole thing on camera
1:16.5	more than 20 impacts which ended not with a whimper but with a bloody great fireworks display. But first, the rehabilitation of the reputation of
1:25.3	Alan Turing goes from strength to strength this week. He was the scientist who, amongst other
1:30.3	things, led the cracking of the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park during the Second World War,
1:35.0	thereby allowing us to understand German naval messages.
	...

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