The Life Scientific: Desert Island Discs without the music
Post categories: The Life Scientific, science
16:40, Monday, 10 October 2011
Editor's note: The Life Scientific is a new series where each week Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics at Surrey University, asks a leading scientist about their life and work - PM.
Sir Paul Nurse
It's exciting enough to be given my own radio series but to kick off with my guest on the very first episode being arguably the most prominent scientist in Britain today makes it doubly exciting.
Sir Paul Nurse is always great value for money - he has pretty much achieved everything one can in science: he has run his own lab, made incredible discoveries, won a Nobel Prize and held the very top positions in the world of science.
And yet it is his personal life that is even more fascinating.
In this week's programme, I try to play a balancing act between learning about Paul's life and career and what makes him tick while at the same time trying to put him on the spot.
After all, here is a scientist who began from humble working class beginnings to become the personification of the scientific establishment. I make the point that he is in a real sense poacher turned gamekeeper, particularly, given his prominent and influential role in controlling huge amounts of research funds and deciding which areas of scientific research they should go to.
I particularly wanted to follow up on a quote from one of my future guests on The Life Scientific, Sir Tim Hunt, the biologist with whom Nurse shared his Nobel prize, who has said about Paul:
"He was my boss when we worked at the Cancer Research Campaign in the 90s and we got on well, but he could be pretty brutal with those who crossed him. He would liquidate them - metaphorically. He is not a doormat."
Paul Nurse is clearly an iron fist inside a velvet glove. And yet, he is such a likeable bloke, and I am certain that won't just be my perception of him. He has such an interesting story to tell.
I will of course do my utmost to ensure that future guests on The Life Scientific also spill the beans, but I am a long way from achieving the hypnotically engaging charm of Kirsty Young, and have set myself up for that sort of comparison by describing The Life Scientific as "Desert Island Discs without the music".
We shall see. For now, I am just gratified that science is getting such a prominent airing.
Jim Al-Khalili presents The Life Scientific
- The Life Scientific starts on Tuesday 11 Oct 2011 at 9am and is repeated at 930pm.
- Jim Al-Khalili's website
- Follow Radio 4 on Twitter and Facebook.
Comment number 1.
At 15:37 11th Oct 2011, newlach wrote:This was a very good interview. Quite a discovery that the gene in yeast responsible for the division of cells is the very same gene responsible for the division of cells in humans. Simply fascinating; and to think that humans diverged from yeast approximately 1.5 billion years ago. I now wonder if in the interest of balance the BBC will air a programme about Noah and his pet dinosaurs!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 16:22 11th Oct 2011, suzywho wrote:Just like Sir Paul Nurse I discovered as an adult that my sister was my mother and that my siblings were uncles and aunts. I was lucky enough to trace my father when I was 50 and nobody would be hurt by the process. My sister/mother has just died and looking at old photos is very revealing. In recent years it has been an open secret for me and I was lucky enough to talk to my natural mother about it all. Thank you to Paul for being open - in the 1950's keeping a child in the family was a brave and difficult thing to do
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 17:07 11th Oct 2011, philthehombre wrote:Add your comment
And I look forward to the 'The Life Scientific' gratified that it will be even better value for public money than the achievements of Sir Paul Nurse because where other than with this weekly skein could the laywoman have the opportunity to forensically observe the depredations of a real time pathology rather than the deductions of it from the defunct aftermath.
Although you may not have fully realised it congratulations to Prof. Al Khalili (and uber heading Ed) on your zuluesque spearhead of a new genre which although it might not have the appeal of some of the more fanciful nostrums of a now drooping physics, it will more of the substance of what perhaps Sir Paul would acknowledge a pukka science.
Scientifically spirited as the comment is, so to the public affirmation of the premise of TLS by the appearance of it.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 22:07 11th Oct 2011, Allan Marchington wrote:Really enjoyed the programme, great interview and a very human story, congratulations to Radio 4!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)