A Good Science Read

Oxford University
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Interested in science and the people behind the science? Looking for an informative, entertaining, thought-provoking and accessible read? Join Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft and her guests as they discuss their favourite popular science books, sharing their love of science, and the books they consider most enjoyable and that offer something to everyone. Episodes will be published fortnightly. Professor Ashcroft is Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College Oxford. Her own books include 'Life at the Extremes: the science of survival' and 'The Spark of Life: electricity in the human body'.

  1. 9月1日

    A Good Science Read: How our brains make our selves

    Professor Dame Uta Frith and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss Our Brains Our Selves: what a neurologist’s patients taught him about the brain by Masud Husain Professor Dame Uta Frith and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss Our Brains Our Selves: what a neurologist’s patients taught him about the brain by Masud Husain Masud Husain is a neurologist and a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. This book tells the stories of seven of his patients, whose personal and social identities were deeply affected by their neurological condition. He shows how their very different problems have illuminated our understanding of how our brains work and how they generate our sense of self. The book also illustrates how impaired brain function can lead to a loss of our social identity. It is written with great insight and compassion. Professor Dame Uta Frith is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. She has a special interest in autism and dyslexia and pioneered much of the key research into these brain conditions. Her book Autism: Explaining the Enigma provided the first account of what happens inside the mind of a person with autism

    40 分鐘

  2. 5月30日

    A Good Science Read: 'The Coming Plague' and 'Spike: The Virus vs. The People - the Inside Story'

    Georgina Ferry and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss 'The Coming Plague' by Laurie Garrett, and 'Spike: The Virus vs. The People - the Inside Story' by Jeremy Farrar and Anjana Ahuja. 'The Coming Plague' is an extremely well researched book that presents a history of old and new plagues such as TB, cholera, influenza, Ebola and hantavirus, and tells the stories of the scientists who study them. Garrett delivers a warning about how ill prepared we are to cope with emerging infectious disease and how politics, bureaucratic infighting and drug company competition make things worse. Written in 1995, she was remarkably prescient as the Covid 19 pandemic has clearly shown. 'Spike: The Virus vs. The People - the Inside Story' is an account of the Covid19 pandemic written by an expert on infectious disease who was at the heart of the fight against the virus, together with science writer Anjana Ahuja. It vividly describes the conflict between UK scientists and politicians on how to contain the spread of the virus. It also tells of Farrar’s initial concerns that the virus could have been manufactured, explains why there are so many variants, and considers what we should have done differently. The book was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Royal Society book prize. Georgina Ferry is a science writer, biographer and broadcaster. She has a particular interest in women in science and her biography of the Nobel prize winning crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin was short-listed for both the Duff Cooper Prize and the March Biography Award. It has recently been reissued by Bloomsbury. Her next book, The Penicillin Century, will be published by OUP in 2026. She has also recorded a series of podcasts with people involved in Oxford’s response to the Covid19 pandemic. Websites: https://mgf.longferry.co.uk/ https://www.lauriegarrett.com/ https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/collecting-covid-oral-histories

    37 分鐘

  3. 4月22日

    A Good Science Read: Masters of Science Writing

    Professor Dinah Birch and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss 'The Faber Book of Science' edited by John Carey and 'The Golden Mole and other living treasures' by Katherine Rundell. Professor Dinah Birch and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss The Faber Book of Science edited by John Carey and The Golden Mole and other living treasures by Katherine Rundell. The Faber Book of Science is a wonderful anthology that showcases some of the very best bits of popular science writing. Each extract is introduced by comments and explanations by Carey and they cover topics as diverse as medieval lice, stardust, protons, butterfly collecting and the colour of radium. Carey also provides a marvellous introductory piece on popular science writing. The Golden Mole is a celebration of 22 endangered species, from the eponymous mole to the pangolin and the Greenland shark. It is written in beautiful prose and full of strange and fascinating facts. It was short-listed for numerous prizes, including the Wainwright prize for Nature Writing and both Waterstones’ and Foyles’ Book of the Year. Dinah Birch CBE is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool, and until recently Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Cultural Engagement. Her speciality is Victorian literature, especially the works of John Ruskin and Anthony Trollope, and she has a particular interest in prose style. She is a regular broadcaster and contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books and was a member of the Man Booker prize committee in 2012. She has recently published a book on Trollope in the Very Short Introduction Series. https://www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/people/dinah-birch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Rundell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carey_(critic)

    46 分鐘

  4. 3月4日

    A Good Science Read: Metabolism

    Professor Tim Coulsen and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss 'Burn: the Misunderstood Science of Metabolism' by Herman Pontzer and 'Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death' by Nick Lane. Both these books are concerned with science of metabolism – the process by which food is burnt to produce energy – but they approach it from different perspectives. Burn is an engaging account of Herman Pontzer’s studies of human metabolism in different populations. He discusses the ways in which metabolism controls every aspect of our health, why exercise doesn’t increase result in weight loss, and why the only way to lose weight is to reduce your calorie intake. Transformer asks how did life originate? What is it that animates our cells, what are the metabolic reactions that power our cells, and how are they regulated?. At the heart of metabolism is a series of reactions known as the Krebs cycle and Nick Lane offers radical new insights into how this originated and evolved. Tim Coulsen is Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. His research considers how ecosystems change in response to changes in the number of the top predator species. He has also recently published a popular science book The Universal History of Us. Websites: https://www.biology.ox.ac.uk/people/tim-coulson https://nick-lane.net/ https://globalhealth.duke.edu/people/pontzer-herman

    34 分鐘

  5. 1月24日

    A Good Science Read: 'The Fly Trap' and 'As If Human: AI and Artificial Intelligence'

    Professor Sir Charles Godfray and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss 'The Fly Trap' by Fredrik Sjöberg and 'As if Human: AI and Artificial Intelligence' by Neil Shadbolt and Roger Hampson. Professor Charles Godfray and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjöberg and As if Human: AI and Artificial Intelligence by Neil Shadbolt and Roger Hampson. The Fly Trap describes the life of the author on a remote island in the Swedish archipelago where he hunts for hoverflies. Partly autobiographical, partly a discourse on insects, collecting, and the life of some extraordinary butterfly collectors, it is an enchanting read, quite lyrical in some places and very funny in others. As if Human: AI and Artificial Intelligence discusses the ethical challenges posed by artificial intelligence. It addresses questions such as: what moral principles should we endow machines with?; who is accountable when things go wrong?; how do we use AI to empower rather than oppress people? How do we control privacy? It concludes with a set of guidelines (which the authors term ’proverbs’) on how a good citizen should approach the future. Sir Charles Godfray is Professor of Population Biology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Martin School and of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food. He is also a Fellow of both the Royal Society and of Balliol College Oxford. His research interests include food security, biodiversity, and environmental science. He also has a passion for insects, particularly a group of tiny parasitic wasps.

    46 分鐘

  6. 2024/10/15

    A Good Science Read: Why Sex Matters

    Professor Russell Foster and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss 'The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature' by Matt Ridley and 'Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation' by Olivia Judson. Series 2 Episode 9 The Red Queen is an excellent and accessible overview of sexual evolution. It discusses why sex matters, why most organisms have 2 genders, why we are not all hermaphrodite, what strategies animals employ to pass on their genes, and how sex influences the evolution of human nature. Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation is written like agony aunt advice column in which all kinds of animals ask for help with their sex lives. This provides the framework for a highly entertaining and informative discussion of the evolutionary biology of sex and the extraordinary variety of ways of reproduction employed by organisms from stick insects to chimpanzees. Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of both Brasenose College Oxford and the Royal Society of London. His research concerns our circadian rhythms – the 24-hour cycles that are part of our internal body clock - and how they are regulated by light. He is also an expert on sleep. Websites https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/russell-foster https://www.mattridley.co.uk/

    42 分鐘

  7. 2024/10/15

    A Good Science Read: A Walk on the Wild Side

    Professor Richard Fortey joins Professor Frances Ashcroft to discuss 'Entangled Life' by Merlin Sheldrake and 'Wilding' by Isabella Tree. Series 2 Episode 8 Entangled Life is fascinating journey into the world of fungi - what they are, how they evolved, their hyphal networks below the ground, their mycorrhizal relationships with plants, their symbiotic interactions with algae in lichens, and the mind-altering chemicals they make. Wilding describes how the switch from intensive farming to minimal intervention led to a spectacular return of wildlife on the Knepp estate in Sussex, including rare species such as turtle doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies. Richard Fortey is a fellow of the both Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He is the author of numerous popular science books and has presented many radio and TV programmes on natural history. His research has focussed on trilobites but he also has a passion for fungi. His most recent book is Close Encounters of the Fungal Kind. Websites https://royalsociety.org/people/richard-fortey-11450/ https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/ https://knepp.co.uk/

    45 分鐘

  8. 2024/10/15

    A Good Science Read: On the Origin of Modern Humans

    Professor Chris Miller and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss 'Who We Are and How We Got Here' by the Harvard geneticist David Reich. Series 2 Episode 7: The book 'Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the new science of the human past' is a compelling account of the origin of modern humans. Reich explains how our recent ability to study ancient DNA has dramatically revised our understanding of how humans spread all over the world. He describes evidence for interbreeding between ancient humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans and shows how we carry in our genes indications that we are descended from ghost populations that no longer exist but must once have done so. He considers how modern human populations are related to each other in ways no-one expected and ponders the implications of the human genome revolution for society. Chris Miller is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at Brandeis University and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Websites https://www.brandeis.edu/biochemistry/faculty/miller-chris.html https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/

    20 分鐘
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簡介

Interested in science and the people behind the science? Looking for an informative, entertaining, thought-provoking and accessible read? Join Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft and her guests as they discuss their favourite popular science books, sharing their love of science, and the books they consider most enjoyable and that offer something to everyone. Episodes will be published fortnightly. Professor Ashcroft is Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College Oxford. Her own books include 'Life at the Extremes: the science of survival' and 'The Spark of Life: electricity in the human body'.

資訊

  • 創作者
    Oxford University
  • 活躍年代
    2024年 - 2025年
  • 集數
    15
  • 年齡分級
    兒少適宜
  • 版權
    © Oxford University
  • 節目網站
    A Good Science Read