On this week’s Little Atoms, Neil Denny talks to Tom Standage.
Tom Standage is the business editor of The Economist. He started his career as the Science and Technology Editor at the Guardian, and has written several books which merge popular science and history including The Victorian Internet, The Neptune File, The Mechanical Turk. and A History of the World in 6 Glasses in which he explores a notion that six drinks in history — beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola — could be seen as technological catalysts in advancing culture. He says of his books “I think the right attitude to new technologies is to regard them with historically-informed scepticism. My approach is intended as a sort of antidote to the scourge of mindless product stories: when something new comes along, I like to point out that it isn’t new at all. This isn’t quite as gratuitous as it sounds; it is quite often possible to learn useful lessons from history, particularly the history of technology”
Tom’s latest book is An Edible History of Humanity, published in paperback by Atlantic in early March 2010. This is Tom’s second visit to Little Atoms.
Join us on Friday evening, 5th March at 19.00 to 19.30 on Resonance 104.4FM in London or via the live feed worldwide.
On this week’s show, Neil Denny and Rebecca Watson talk to Dr Karen James.
Dr Karen James is a postdoctoral research assistant in the Department of Botany of the Natural History Museum, working on the development of a DNA-based identification system for plant species. She also coordinated the museum’s Darwin bicentenary science campaign including a survey of the museum’s Darwin specimens and a Galapagos mockingbird conservation genetics project. She is the director of science for The HMS Beagle Trust which aims to build a modern seagoing version of HMS Beagle for scientific research, public engagement and learning.
Join us on Friday evening, 12th February at 19.00 to 19.30 on Resonance 104.4FM in London or via the live feed worldwide.
On this week’s show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to Christopher Hird.
Christopher Hird is a leading figure in UK independent documentary making. He is chair of the Channel Four Britdoc Foundation; a trustee of the Grierson Trust, the Wincott Foundation and Index on Censorship. In January 2008 Christopher Hird started Dartmouth Films, and has produced such films as Cameron’s Money Men, Inside the Saudi Kingdom, Black Gold, and most recently, The End of The Line.
A former journalist working on The Economist, the New Statesman (of which he was deputy editor) and the Sunday Times, where he was editor of the investigative section, Insight. A casualty of the Murdoch regime, he moved into television starting as a reporter on Channel Four’s current affairs programme before co-founding Fulcrum TV, of which he was joint managing director for more than 20 years before it closed in 2007.
Join us at the usual time, 19.00 on Friday 5th February on Resonance 104.4FM in London or via the Resonance live web feed worldwide.
On this week’s show, Neil Denny and guest host Becky Hogge talk to Stewart Brand.
Stewart Brand trained originally as an ecologist. His legendary Whole Earth Catalogue (1968 – 1985) won the US National Book Award in 1972. Brand, whose previous books include The Media Lab, How Buildings Learn, and The Clock of the Long Now, is president and co-founder of the Long Now Foundation and co-founder of the Global Business Network. Stewart’s Latest book is Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, Published in January 2010 by Atlantic Books.
The first of our monthly guest hosts is Becky Hogge. Becky Hogge is a freelance writer and researcher. Formerly executive director of the Open Rights Group, and a former technology director of openDemocracy, she is currently a board member of the Open Knowledge Foundation. Becky writes and broadcasts on technology, civil rights and intellectual property in the digital age for publications such as the New Statesman, The Guardian and Index on Censorship. Read Becky’s New Statesman review of Whole Earth Discipline.
On this week’s show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy will be talking to Graham Farmelo. Graham Farmelo is Senior Research Fellow at the Science Museum, London, and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Northeastern University, Boston, USA. Formerly a theoretical physicist, he is now an international consultant in science communication. He edited the best-selling It Must be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science in 2002. Graham’s latest book is The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius.
Neil | Friday, 5 March, 2010
