BBC - Radio 4 - Science Explorer: Jim Al-Khalili featured in The Life Scientific
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The public face of science
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Science Broadcasters
"These are public scientists who were out there communicating and popularising scientists, they were regarded as a "lower calibre" than those who stayed in their ivory towers. Thankfully that attitude is changing fast."
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Radio 4: Great Lives: Carl Sagan Great Lives: Carl Sagan
Physicist Brian Cox tells Matthew Parris how Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV show changed his life. (2010) -
Radio 4: The Reith Lectures: Steve Jones (1991) The Reith Lectures: Steve Jones (1991)
Dr Steve Jones, Reader in Genetics at University College, London gives six Reith Lectures on the new biological insight into humanity. (1991)
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Radio4: The Infinite Monkey Cage The Infinite Monkey Cage: Glastonbury Special
Radio 4's award winning science/comedy show hits Glastonbury to prove that science really is the new rock n roll. Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by musicians Billy Bragg and Graham Coxon, comedian Shappi Khorsandi, and scientist Professor Tony Ryan. (2011)
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Science Programmes
"Very few scientists are good presenters, and very few presenters happen to be scientists" - Johnny Ball Children's TV presenter.
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BBC Archive: Tomorrow's World Tomorrow's World Archive Collection
Beginning in 1965, the BBC's flagship science programme ran for nearly 40 years. Its mix of quirky film reports and live experiments examined the changing state of current technology and put new inventions to the test.
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BBC News: A History of TV Scientists A History of TV Scientists
From Patrick Moore to Brian Cox, meet some of the scientists who have explained the biggest concepts via the TV screen. (2010)
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BBC One: Bang Goes The Theory BBC One's Bang Goes the Theory
Bang Goes the Theory is BBC TV's guide to popular science. Discover and challenge the scientific principles that shape your world - watch videos and do real experiments at home.
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East meets West
With an Iraqi father and English mother, the Baghdad Jim Al-Khalili spent his early years in was cosmopolitan and vibrant but, once Saddam Hussein came to power, his parents realised the family would have to flee, and he has lived and worked in Britain for the past 30 years.
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Radio 4: Desert Island Discs Desert Island Discs - Jim Al-Khalili
He's spent his adult life studying sub-atomic particles - and trying to explain them to the rest of us. He fell in love with physics when he was a teenager growing up in Iraq. Listen to Jim Al-Khalili's choice of discs to take to his desert island. (2010) -
Radio 4: Great Lives Great Lives - Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell was a British woman who arguably founded the modern state of Iraq. Explorer, mountaineer and archaeologist, this extraordinarily talented woman travelled widely across Arabia in the years preceding the first world war. Presented by Jim Al-Khalili. (2011) -
Radio 4: Crossing Continents Crossing Continents - Baghdad
Gabriel Gatehouse hears the extraordinary tales of the people coming into and out of Iraq - and paints a portrait of a still troubled country through its international gateway. (2011)
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Theoretical nuclear physics
Listen: Theoretical Nuclear Physics
"That's really my bread and butter area of science - mathematical physics using quantum mechanics - the mathematical modelling of atomic nuclei. It's my job to try and come up with a mathematical theory that matches the data that then tells us something about the real world."
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Atomic, Nuclear and Particle Physics
"The further you zoom in the more expensive the science gets, the more data you have to analyse and more complicated it is."
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Radio 4: In Our Time: Nuclear Physics In Our Time: Nuclear Physics
Melvyn Bragg examines one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, and certainly the most controversial; the development of nuclear physics. (2002) -
Radio 4: The Great Big Particle Adventure The Great Big Particle Adventure
Comedian and physicist Ben Miller explores the workings of the new LHC atom smasher at CERN in Switzerland and what it is designed to discover (2008)
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Quantum Mechanics
"Appyling the strange and facinating rules of quantum mechanics to the sub atomic world."
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Radio 4: In Our Time: The measurement problem in physics In Our Time: The measurement problem in physics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the deepest problems in contemporary physics. It's called the measurement problem and it emerged from the flurry of activity in the early 20th century that gave rise to Quantum Mechanics. (2009) -
Radio 4: In Our Time: The Physics of Reality In Our Time: The Physics of Reality
When Quantum Mechanics was developed in the early 20th century reality changed forever. In the quantum world particles could be in two places at once, they disappeared for no reason and reappeared in unpredictable locations, they even acted differently according to whether we were watching them. (2002) -
BBC News: Bridging the gap to quantum world BBC News: Bridging the gap to quantum world
Scientists have "entangled" the motions of pairs of atoms for the first time. The results, published in Nature, further bridge the gap between the world of quantum mechanics and the laws of everyday experience. (2009)
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Ernest Rutherford
"We are currently cebrating the centenary of Rutherford's famous paper in 1911 where he first explained what the inside of an atom looked like - that it's mostly empty space with electrons buzzing around a nucleus."
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Radio 4: In Our Time: Ernest Rutherford In Our Time: Ernest Rutherford
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ernest Rutherford. He was the father of nuclear science, a great charismatic figure who mapped the landscape of the sub-atomic world. (2004) -
BBC News: Manchester marks Rutherford centenary BBC News: Manchester marks Rutherford centenary
Manchester is hosting a series of events to mark the centenary of a paper by Ernest Rutherford that changed the way we look at the world and Universe around us.
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Radio 4: Big Bang Day Big Bang Day - 5 Particles
Simon Singh examines the significance of subatomic particles.
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Science and religion
"I don't know if it's my scientific training or because I was going to head that way, but by my mid-teens I was no longer religious."
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Science and Islam
"My father's Muslim and my mother is a Christian. I grew up in a household that was religious but in a broad sense."
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Radio 4: Islam and Science Islam and Science
Writer and journalist Ehsan Masood explores the status of science in the modern Islamic world, and asks whether measures taken to promote science are having an impact on the work of Muslim scientists. (2009) -
Radio 4: The Lab and the Mosque The Lab and the Mosque
In western eyes, science and religion don't mix. But Muslims see no contradiction in a belief system that embraces both science and religion. Ziauddin Sardar investigates the philosophical and practical links between science and Islam. (2003)
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BBC News: The 'first true scientist' BBC News - The 'first true scientist'
Jim Al-Khalili examines the legacy of a scientist born in AD 965 in what is now Iraq who went by the name of al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham.
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Atheism and Dawkins
"I find it more comfortable to say I'm an atheist, and for that I probably have someone like Dawkins to thank." (Jim Al-Khalili)
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Radio 4: A Point of View: Believing in Belief A Point of View: Believing in Belief
John Gray argues that the scientific and rationalist attack on religion is misguided. (2011) -
Radio 4: Beyond Belief Beyond Belief - A secular meaning to life
Is there a secular meaning of life and how this can be achieved without a shared reference to God or other higher spiritual figure. (2010) -
Radio 4: Desert Island Discs: Richard Dawkins Desert Island Discs: Richard Dawkins
Author of popular science books such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins talks to Sue Lawley about his scientific beliefs which are firmly rooted in the conviction that Darwin's theory of evolution provides the starting point for all we need to know about our world. See Richard Dawkins' choice of eight records for his island exile. (1995)
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Creationism
"What happens if you're teaching in a school and a pupil tells you that your teaching conflicts with their religious beliefs?"
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Radio 4: Moral Maze Moral Maze: Science and morality
Politicians, it seems, are increasingly turning to disciplines like neuroscience and evolutionary anthropology to understand why we do things, so they can better tailor and design policies that will work in the real world. (2011) -
BBC Nature: Blog BBC Nature Blog - Can religious teachings prove evolution to be true?
It is one of the great questions of the past 150 years - Did God or evolution drive the emergence of life in all its resplendent variety? (2011)
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Radio 4: Beyond Belief Beyond Belief: The origins of the universe
Under discussion - what an understanding of the Big Bang Theory proves about the existence or not of God. How is the search for the so-called "God particle" or Higgs Boson taking shape at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland and what are the implications for its discovery? (2010)
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Passions: Time travel & Newton
"Of course I'm interested in Time Travel. If anyone ever tried to build a time machine I don't think I'd be the first person to try it out."
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Einstein's Theory of Relativity
"The way relativity comes alive for many people is what it tells us about the possiblity of time travel. There are possibilities of travelling through time according to our best theory of relativity of time"
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Radio 4: In Our Time: The Physics of Time In Our Time: The Physics of Time
For Newton time was absolute and set apart from the universe, but with the theories of Albert Einstein time became more complicated; it could be squeezed and distorted and was different in different places.(2008) -
Radio 4: Great Lives: Einstein Great Lives: Einstein
Professor Kathy Sykes, biographer John Gribbin and presenter Matthew Parris discuss whether Einstein was really a 'crazy genius'. (2006) -
Radio 4: In Einstein's Shadow In Einstein's Shadow
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein's Annus Mirabilis of 1905 Dr Brian Cox takes a look at the huge impact of Einstein's theories and talks to the scientists, who one hundred years later are still heavily influenced by his work. (2005)
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Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica
"One of the most important books ever writen, certainly in science. It's absolutely priceless."
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Radio 4: A Brief History of Mathematics A Brief History of Mathematics
Professor of Mathematics Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations and argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science. (2010) -
BBC Science: Isaac Newton BBC Science: Isaac Newton
In 1686-1687 Sir Isaac Newton published the three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation, the best description of gravity for more than 200 years until Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. Newton developed the branch of mathematics called calculus. (2006) -
Radio 4: In Our Time: The Laws of Motion In Our Time: The Laws of Motion
In 1687 Isaac Newton attempted to explain the movements of everything in the universe, from a pea rolling on a plate to the position of the planets. It was a brilliant, vaultingly ambitious and fiendishly complex task; it took him three sentences. (2008)
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