Thursday 8 July 2010

Tania Talks about Science

I was thrilled last week to be invited to take part  - along with Dr Ben Goldacre and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock - in a discussion on Radio 4's Off the Page program entitled "Blinded by Science". It was broadcast today at 1.30pm and is available on iPlayer for 7 more days.

I got the chance to talk about being writer-in-residence in the University labs, and I read out the first short story I've written inspired by being where science is done. Not sure what the scientists in the lab I am embedding in will make of it! (Comment here, guys, if you like...!)

Hope you enjoy it, I think it was an interesting discussion!

1 comment:

Nick Riddle said...

Hi Tania - I enjoyed the discussion, and as a non-scientist I was interested to hear one of you (I forget who) make an analogy with the priesthood. It was a word I'd been conjuring with in the same context: lay people often have a conception of scientists as keepers of the Sacred Flame, or as being in touch with the Ineffable Mysteries. I've been guilty of this myself, and I suspect that, no matter how much one tries to counter this mythologising tendency, it persists because it answers a human need for figures who occupy that role of sage, village elder, whatever you want to call it. And actual priests haven't been getting good press lately...

Am I imagining this? Are there any scientists out there who have a view on this?