Spirit Of
EPISODE 3
THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY
In this show we take a voyage towards the discovery of existence and we aim to ask the big questions: where did we come from, what are we made of and where we are going? Along the way, Becky Anderson will talk to a number of contemporary scientists who exemplify the spirit of science and discovery.
We start the show with a bang, in fact the biggest bang ever. The start of creation and the genesis of the universe. Becky visits the particle physics laboratory CERN, in Geneva, where the biggest experiment in the world is underway. It's an attempt to recreate the conditions that led to the Big Bang, essentially the birth of the universe. A multi-billion dollar experiment that's being conducted under the French/Swiss border, it's a controversial attempt to push our understanding of science to its limits.
Becky then travels back to London to meet Sir Martin Rees, one of the world's leading astronomers and Astronomer Royal since 1995. He has catalogued the threats facing the human race in a 21st century dominated by unprecedented and accelerating scientific change. He calls on scientists and nonscientists alike to take steps that will ensure our survival as a species.
Finally, Becky heads to California to meet Craig Venter. Venter is the American biologist and businessman who decoded the human genome in 2000, one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs over the last two decades.
Our conclusion: science is alive and well and embodied in the likes of the Rees, Venter and the scientists at CERN. Men of genius, who are never happier than when staring into a microscope or staring into the future.
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