BBC launches year of science

The BBC has today launched a year long series of programmes and activities celebrating science that coincides with the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary.   TV and radio programmes along with online initiatives, roadshows and learning campaigns will look at contemporary science subjects as well as looking at the history of how science shaped the way we live.

Jana Bennett, Director of Vision at the BBC said: “Science is at the heart of everyday life, life itself and the universe.  It’s also a deeply human pursuit.  In 2010, the BBC aims to illuminate, celebrate and evaluate science in the 21^st Century and how its shaped our history and culture.”

Radio programmes have already started with a highlight in Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time: The Royal Society and British Science which is available to listen again online.  There will also be Materials World’s search for Britain’s best amateur scientist, So You Want To Be A Scientist? and the sideways look at science in The Infinite Monkey Cage, co-presented by Royal Society University Research Fellow Professor Brian Cox.  TV Highlights are set to include The Story of Science, Humanand Seven Wonders of the Solar System which will also be presented by Brian Cox. 

The President of the Royal Society, Martin Rees will deliver this year’s Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4.  Richard Dawkins FRS and former University Research Fellow Marcus du Sautoy will also feature on screens and the airwaves.

To find out more about World of Wonder – Science on the BBC visit www.bbc.co.uk/science