Dr Roger Highfield joins Professor Frances Ashcroft to discuss Pain: A Ladybird Expert book by Irene Tracey and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Pain is a very short book but it encompasses everything you want to know about

A Good Science Read: How humans changed the landscape and ourselves

Apr 29th, 2024 39m 29s

Professor Peter Burge joins Professor Frances Ashcroft to discuss Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles by Jay Owens and The Species that Changed Itself or How prosperity reshaped humanity by Edwin Gale. Dust is all around us and we br

A Good Science Read: Evolution - from Fossils to Finches

Apr 15th, 2024 37m 41s

Professor Paul Smith and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould and The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. Wonderful Life focuses on the weird and wonderful fossils found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian

A Good Science Read: The Secret Life of the Cuckoo

Apr 1st, 2024 22m 26s

Professor Richard Boyd joins Professor Frances Ashcroft to discuss Cuckoo - Cheating by Nature by Nick Davies. The cuckoo is a ruthless parasite that lays its egg in another bird’s nest, tricks them into accepting the egg as its own and entic

A Good Science Read: The importance of Mathematics and Engineering

Mar 18th, 2024 42m 20s

Professor Marcus du Sautoy joins Professor Frances Ashcroft to discuss A Mathematician’s Apology by GH Hardy and Exactly: How Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester. Marcus du Sautoy is Simonyi Professor of the Public Understand

A Good Science Read: The importance of Mathematics and Engineering

Mar 18th, 2024 42m 20s

Professor Marcus du Sautoy joins Professor Frances Ashcroft to discuss A Mathematician’s Apology by GH Hardy and Exactly: How Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester. A Mathematician’s Apology is GH Hardy’s panegyric on pure math

A Good Science Read: The Story of Penicillin

Mar 4th, 2024 39m 37s

Professor Matthew Freeman and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss "The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat" by Eric Lax This book tells the true story of the penicillin miracle – penicillin being the mould in Dr Florey’s coat. When most people are asked

A Good Science Read: The Story of Penicillin

Mar 4th, 2024 39m 37s

Professor Matthew Freeman and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss "The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat" by Eric Lax Matthew Freeman is Professor of Pathology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of both Lincoln College Oxford and the Royal Society