BBC HomeExplore the BBC


Accessibility help
Text only
BBC Homepage
BBC Radio
BBC Radio 4 - 92 to 94 FM and 198 Long WaveListen to Digital Radio, Digital TV and OnlineListen on Digital Radio, Digital TV and Online

PROGRAMME FINDER:
Programmes
Podcasts
Schedule
Presenters
PROGRAMME GENRES:
News
Drama
Comedy
Science
Religion|Ethics
History
Factual
Messageboards
Radio 4 Tickets
Radio 4 Help

Contact Us

Like this page?
Send it to a friend!

 

factual
Start the Week
MISSED A PROGRAMME?
Go to the Listen Again page
start the week banner image
23 July 2007
Listen to this programme in full
image: andrew marr
This week Andrew Marr is joined by Walt Patterson, Jim Al-Khalili, Georgina Ferry and Dan Hind.
We are making a mess of energy and this is endangering the planet, says energy analyst WALT PATTERSON. In his new book, Keeping The Lights On: Towards Sustainable Electricity, he discusses how to deliver a genuinely sustainable electricity system for the future. He argues that we have to stop treating electricity as a commodity if we are to address the problems of the climate. Keeping The Lights On: Towards Sustainable Electricity is published by Earthscan.

Quantum physicist JIM AL-KHALILI dives into the science we can’t see, exploring the life of the atom and the story of its discovery. It’s only one ten millionth of a millimetre across, yet it has the power to create the cosmos, or to destroy the world. In his new series Atom, starting on BBC4 on Thursday 26 July at 9.00pm, Jim Al-Khalili recounts the chequered history of the atom and the lives of those who discovered and explored it.

The Nobel Prize-winning scientist Max Perutz founded a small research group in which Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA. Science writer and broadcaster GEORGINA FERRY talks about her biography, Max Perutz and the Secret of Life, and discusses his 22-year quest to reveal the structure of the protein molecule haemoglobin that led to more efficient ways of creating and testing new drugs, as well as his involvement in a secret World War Two project to build aircraft carriers out of ice. Max Perutz and the Secret of Life is published by Chatto & Windus.

DAN HIND is calling for a new Enlightenment in his book The Threat to Reason. He argues that any questioning of the state or corporations leads to being labelled as an enemy to progress, a technophobe or a religious fanatic. He calls for us all to become researchers for truth, counteracting the control of information from those who pay our wages and run our public lives. The Threat To Reason is published by Verso.


This is the last programme in the current series. Start The Week returns on 1 October.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites
Listen Live
Audio Help

Start the Week

Episodes
Archived Episodes
Arts, Culture and the Media


About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy