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This Week's Guest:
Professor Baruch Blumberg
Sunday 19 January
Repeated
Friday 24 January | | |  |
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| Barry's choice |  | |
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Nobel Prize winning scientist Professor Baruch Blumberg.
Barry Blumberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in the 1920’s, just before the economic depression in 1929. As a young boy he was particularly interested in science, and when his family moved to Queens he turned the basement of his parents house into a laboratory.
At age 17, during the Second World War, he was enlisted into the Navy. They sent him to do an accelerated two year physics degree before he was trained to become a Deck officer serving on small amphibious ships but he was fortunate not to be in war areas and enjoyed his experience.
After the war Barry re-trained as a doctor. He worked in a large New York Hospital before becoming interested in research. After a spell doing his doctorate at Oxford University he returned to the United States and focused on basic research into ethnic diversity. He was interested in how people differ to each other, why some people got sick and others didn’t, with particular reference to disease.
Through extensive research on this subject Barry and his team discovered the Hepatitis B virus. This discovery of the antigen was the key to developing a vaccine and put in place special blood screening for transfusions to prevented further spread of the disease. In 1976 Barry was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry or Medicine. Since then he has continued his research and also worked at NASA where he has been researching astral biology - the possibility of life on other planets.
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1. ‘Space Oddity’
Performer: David Bowie
Composer: David Bowie
Publisher: RCA Records
CD Title: Changes One Bowie
Track: 1
Label: RCA
Rec No: PD 81732
2. ‘California Dreamin’
Performer: Mamas and Papas
Composer: Philips/Gilliam
Publisher: Old Gold Records
CD Title: California Dream/Monday Monday
Track: 1
Label: OLD GOLD
Rec No: OG 6142
3. ‘City of New Orleans’
Performer: Willie Nelson
Composer: S Goodman
Publisher: CBS
CD Title: The Singers
Track: 8
Label: CBS
Rec No: 465049 -2
4. ‘Take the A Train’
Performer: Duke Ellington and Orchestra
Composer: Strayhorn
Publisher: Phontastic
CD Title: Let’s Do It
Track: 1
Label: PHONTASTIC
Rec No: Saan 1887429
5. ‘Nimrod’ from Enigma Variations
Performer: London Symphony Orchestra cond. Sir Colin Davis
Composer: Elgar
Publisher: Philips Classics Productions
CD Title: Elgar: Various works
Track: 10
Label: Philips
Rec No: 442 652-2
6. ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’
Performer: Philadelphia Orchestra & the Great Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Composer: Lambert
Publisher: Boosey and Hawkes
CD Title: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Track: Side 1 track 3
Label: CBS
Rec No: 61617
7. ‘Flowers of the Forest’
Performer: The Celtic Tradition
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: KPM Music
CD Title: The Celtic Tradition
Track: 10
Label: KPM
Rec No: KPM 249CD
8. ‘The Aria of Bach’s Goldberg Variations’
Performer: Charles Rosen
Composer: Bach
Publisher: Sony Music
CD Title: Goldberg Variations
Track: 1
Label: Sony Classical
Rec No: SBK 48173
Favourite Record: City of New Orleans by Willie Nelson
Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
Luxury: A flat water kayak suitable for rough water. | | |
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