1 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,680 On New Year's Eve, 1691, 2 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,200 just a few weeks short of his 65th birthday, 3 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:18,960 the Honourable Robert Boyle died at his home 4 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:20,680 here on Pall Mall in London. 5 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:27,200 Now, Boyle is widely regarded as the founding father of modern 6 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:31,840 chemistry, he's certainly one of Britain's most famous scientists. 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,520 He rubbed shoulders with Samuel Pepys, with Isaac Newton 8 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:35,960 and with Christopher Wren, 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:40,320 and every science student knows him for the law that bears his name, 10 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:42,920 which relates the pressure and the volume of a gas 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:44,200 that fits temperature. 12 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:54,120 But there was also another romantic, 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:58,360 visionary side to the man which was revealed on a piece of paper 14 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,680 that was found in his personal effects just after his death. 15 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,560 This artefact is so significant that it's kept here at 16 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:20,200 the Royal Society, a stone's throw from where Boyle lived and died. 17 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,680 And here it is, it's a list written in Boyle's neat handwriting 18 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,080 at the time the Royal Society was founded. 19 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:39,960 And although it has no title, it looks like, if not a to-do list 20 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:41,880 then at least a...a list of things 21 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:46,160 that Boyle thought could be achieved by science. 22 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:52,720 Number one is the prolongation of life. The art of flying. 23 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,760 The transmutation of metals. 24 00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:01,880 A practical and certain way of finding longitude. 25 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:06,280 A ship to sail in all winds, and a perpetual light. 26 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:11,680 Boyle's list is eclectic and, in places, surreal. 27 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:17,760 It seems he's interested in attaining gigantic dimensions. 28 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,680 He wants to stop and even turn back the ageing process. 29 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:26,160 He'd like to find a way of continuing long underwater 30 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:27,960 and emulating fish, 31 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:32,920 and feels that varnishes, perfumable by rubbing, would be worth having. 32 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,000 Now, this list would've seemed fantastical 33 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:39,600 to someone in the 17th century. 34 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:44,320 It would've seemed like science fiction, but what I find remarkable 35 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:49,920 about it is that all but two of the 24 things on this list have now been 36 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:54,480 achieved by science, and I suppose that makes Boyle a visionary. 37 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:03,960 Robert Boyle recognised that science, indeed British science, 38 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:08,360 could do much more than just expand our knowledge of the world. 39 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,560 He thought that science could also be used to change our world, 40 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:16,160 to enrich our lives and create a better future for everyone. 41 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:28,600 Since Boyle wrote his list, the world has been changed by science 42 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:32,280 and scientists, and it's here in Britain 43 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:34,920 where some of the greatest changes have their roots. 44 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,040 This is where James Watts and George Stephenson 45 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:43,240 harnessed steam power, 46 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:45,680 where Rutherford and Chadwick unravelled 47 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:47,720 the architecture of the atom. 48 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:51,120 Where Edward Jenner worked out 49 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,280 the principles of vaccination, saving millions of lives 50 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:55,960 in the process. 51 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:00,280 Robert Watson-Watt's radar has transformed travel, 52 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:04,480 and Tim Berners-Lee's worldwide web has transformed everything. 53 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,480 There is no doubt that science, much of it British, 54 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:15,840 has created the modern world, but how that progress should be 55 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,240 achieved has always been contentious. 56 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,800 In this film I want to explore the drivers of that scientific 57 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,920 progress, from the curiosity-led exploration of nature, to 58 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:31,680 the solutions of practical problems and to financial gain. 59 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:35,040 I also want to explore our scientific future 60 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:38,800 and how we can ensure that that future is always going to be 61 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:40,840 a better place to live than the past. 62 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,000 Throughout history, Britain's scientists have often been 63 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,440 motivated by one thing. 64 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:07,720 Indeed some argue it's perhaps the greatest driver of scientific 65 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:13,720 discovery - the simple aspiration to understand how nature works. 66 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:21,280 In its purest form it is just that, the desire to understand 67 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:25,440 without any regard at all for how useful the discoveries may be, 68 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:26,760 or how profitable. 69 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,680 This approach to science is called curiosity-driven research, 70 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,760 sometimes blue-skies research. 71 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:35,920 And the best example of 72 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:41,280 a practitioner of this pure form of discovery is probably John Tyndall, 73 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:45,920 who had a passion, it should be said, for the great outdoors. 74 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:05,480 John Tyndall was born in 1820 into a working-class family, 75 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:09,520 but he ended up at the heart of the scientific establishment. 76 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:14,200 He was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society aged 32 and became 77 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:18,200 professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution a year later. 78 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,600 But as well as being a scholar, Tyndall was also 79 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:27,800 something of a romantic. 80 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,640 One of his favourite places to find inspiration was the Alps. 81 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:36,120 Indeed, the spectacular alpine landscape prompted 82 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,600 one of his greatest discoveries, which in turn inspired 83 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:44,520 generations of scientists to pursue fundamental research. 84 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,640 Tyndall wrote about the beauty of the mountains in this 85 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:52,360 wonderful little book, Hours Of Exercise In The Alps. 86 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,000 He writes, "They seemed pyramids of solid fire. 87 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:57,800 "As the evening advanced, 88 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,640 "the eastern heavens low down assumed a deep 89 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:02,680 "purple hue above which, 90 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,760 "and blending with it by infinitesimal gradations, 91 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:11,920 "was a belt of red, and over this again zones of orange and violet." 92 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,320 But Tyndall was also a scientist, 93 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:22,720 so he understood that whilst there's an aesthetic beauty to nature, 94 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,880 there's a deeper beauty. A beauty that lies below the surface, 95 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:31,520 a beauty in understanding how and why things happen. 96 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:37,120 So Tyndall set out to understand the origin of those magnificent colours. 97 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:46,320 To do that, Tyndall designed an experiment that he hoped 98 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:47,880 would provide the answers. 99 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,000 Obviously a tank full of water, 10 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,040 and into that water I'm just going to put a few drops of milk. 101 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:04,360 Now that basically just introduces some particles into the liquid. 102 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:16,160 Now what Tyndall then did was shine a white light into the tank, 103 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:17,880 and you immediately see 104 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:20,880 that the tank lights up with different colours. 105 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:22,680 Tyndall loved this. 106 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:27,600 In his typically poetic fashion, he described it as "sky in a box". 107 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:33,320 You see that at this side of the tank, then the solution is blue 108 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:35,280 and as you move through the tank, 109 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:37,480 then it becomes more and more yellow 110 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:41,920 and, actually to us, this end, it's even beginning to become orange. 111 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:45,960 So this is the alpine sky in a box, 112 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:49,840 and Tyndall had an explanation for why this happens. 113 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,440 So there's the tank and here's a source of white light, which 114 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:01,960 as Tyndall well knew, is made up of all the colours of the rainbow. 115 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:05,840 Now what Tyndall proposed is that the blue light has a higher 116 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:10,000 probability of bouncing around a scattering of the particles 117 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:11,560 of milk in the water. 118 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:14,480 We now know that this is 119 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:17,600 because blue light has a shorter wavelength than the other 120 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:21,080 colours of visible light, making it more likely to scatter. 121 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:27,240 So that means that the blue light will be the first to scatter 122 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:29,960 and get dispersed throughout the liquid, 123 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,480 and so the first piece of the tank will look blue. 124 00:09:35,560 --> 00:09:38,840 This is essentially what happens in the sky. 125 00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,760 Instead of droplets of milk, Tyndall believed that 126 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:47,000 blue light from the sun was more likely 127 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,240 to scatter off particles of dust 128 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,920 and water floating in the atmosphere, 129 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:53,840 and so colour the sky blue. 130 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:03,320 But the tank also explains the sunset colours. 131 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:07,200 As the light penetrates deeper into the milky water, eventually 132 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,080 all of the shorter wavelengths of blue light are scattered away, 133 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,240 leaving just the longer wavelengths of orange and red, so the water 134 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:20,720 looks progressively more orange and, if the tank were long enough, red. 135 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:23,920 So, too, the sky. 136 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:28,040 As the sun gets lower, its light has to travel through more atmosphere, 137 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:31,840 so the shorter blue wavelengths scatter away completely, leaving 138 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:37,320 just the orange and red light, making the sky appear red at sunset. 139 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:48,280 Now Tyndall's explanation was right in principle but wrong in detail. 140 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:50,200 See, Tyndall thought that the light was 141 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:56,200 scattering off particles of dust in the air. In fact, it isn't. 142 00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:58,400 It's scattering off the air molecules themselves, 143 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,400 but Tyndall couldn't have known that 144 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,720 because the existence of molecules wasn't known at the time. 145 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,680 But it didn't matter and, in fact, it was the misinterpretation 146 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:13,920 of his results that led Tyndall to make his most important 147 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:18,280 discovery of all, and it had nothing to do with the colour of the sky. 148 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:28,200 Being a curious scientist, Tyndall decided to proceed 149 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:33,960 and carry out more experiments, so he took a box of air 150 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:35,360 filled with dust... 151 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:42,600 ..and he let the dust settle for days and days and days. 152 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:46,280 He called his sample with all the dust settled out 153 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:48,080 "optically pure air". 154 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,600 And then he started putting things in the box to see what happened. 155 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:55,480 So he put some meat in it and he put some fish in it, and he even put 156 00:11:55,480 --> 00:12:00,400 samples of his own urine in it, and what he noticed was something very 157 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:05,600 interesting - the meat didn't decay, the fish didn't decay, and his 158 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:11,360 urine didn't cloud. He said that it remained as clear as "fresh sherry". 159 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:16,920 Now by allowing the dust to settle out, Tyndall had also 160 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:20,920 inadvertently allowed bacteria to settle out. 161 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:26,520 He hadn't just created dust-free, or optically pure air. 162 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:30,280 Without realising it, Tyndall had sterilised it. 163 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:32,600 He'd let all of the bacteria settle out 164 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:37,200 and stick to the bottom of the box. The air inside was now germ-free. 165 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,680 It may not have been his original intention, but Tyndall had 166 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:48,680 provided decisive evidence for a controversial theory of the time, 167 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:55,280 and that is that decay and disease are caused by microbes in the air. 168 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:04,720 John Tyndall was a man who followed his curiosity for its own sake, 169 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:06,120 not for where it might lead. 170 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:11,560 He didn't set out to discover the origins of airborne disease when he 171 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:17,480 began exploring the colours of the sky, but that's exactly what he did. 172 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:20,000 It's appropriate then that curiosity-led 173 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,680 investigation like this is often called blue-skies research. 174 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,760 Scientists have continued to follow in Tyndall's footsteps, 175 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:49,600 expanding our horizons way beyond his blue skies, 176 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:53,720 to explore the great questions above our heads beyond the skies. 177 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,800 In the 150 years since Tyndall, scientists have built 178 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:07,120 increasingly sophisticated telescopes in a quest 179 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:10,560 to answer the most fundamental questions about our universe. 180 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:15,600 Indeed, today it's even possible to place sophisticated 181 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:20,520 technology beyond our atmosphere to peer into the depths of space. 182 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:32,120 One such satellite is gazing at the star that first inspired 183 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,680 Tyndall to investigate the colour of the sky. 184 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,640 Our sun is just one of over 200 billion stars that 185 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:48,080 make up our galaxy. 186 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:53,920 It's 1.4 million miles in diameter and burns at a temperature 187 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:58,720 of 5,500 degrees Celsius at its surface. 188 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:03,960 But despite being our nearest neighbouring star, much is 189 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:05,720 still unknown about the sun. 190 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,000 Helen Mason is working to change that. 191 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,280 How could you not be fascinated by the sun 192 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,000 when you see images like this? 193 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,680 Look at these, they look like computer graphics 194 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:19,240 from a film. This is from... 195 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:20,560 Sci-fi film. This is real. 196 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,040 This is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, 197 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,920 and what you can see here is a huge eruption on the sun. 198 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,360 If you imagine the size of the earth 199 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:35,760 is almost the size of the tip of my finger. Yeah. 20 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,480 What are the big, outstanding questions about our star? 201 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:43,760 Well, there's been an outstanding question which we're tackling. 202 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:47,440 When you have an eclipse you see the atmosphere of the sun, the corona, 203 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:51,680 and although the surface of the sun is about 6,000 degrees, the corona 204 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:56,040 is a million degrees, and that's intuitively something quite bizarre. 205 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,200 Cos the heat's coming from the core, so it's... 206 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:00,920 The heat's coming up from the core, but you don't naturally 207 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:05,440 expect something cool, about 6,000 and then a million degrees. 208 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:09,840 So one of the real questions is why. What heats that corona? 209 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:13,120 It's a very difficult problem. We're making some progress 210 00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:15,880 although we haven't absolutely cracked it yet. 211 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:23,280 Helen's pursuit of knowledge may be noble, but there are those 212 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,080 who question the validity of fundamental research like hers. 213 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,560 From rockets to particle accelerators, 214 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,040 blue-skies research costs billions of pounds, 215 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,760 and to some this is an utter waste of taxpayers' money. 216 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:48,160 If I was to ask the question, "Well, what use is this knowledge?" 217 00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:49,800 How would you answer that? 218 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:51,280 All knowledge is useful, 219 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,240 so scientific endeavour in itself is useful. 220 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,880 Understanding why something behaves in the way it is. 221 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,400 I think there's an inspirational element there 222 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:03,600 when people want to know about where they are, who they are, 223 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,920 what's happening up in the heavens, what's happening with the sun. 224 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,520 Civilised society is about why, you know, why does it work like that? 225 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:13,800 What happens? And I think if you take that away then you just say, 226 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:17,640 "Well, how do I make this particular device? 227 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:19,680 "How do I build a better car? How do I do that?" 228 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:21,880 Those are different questions. I just don't think 229 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:25,600 they should squeeze out the curiosity-driven science altogether. 230 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,680 Blue-skies research is important because knowledge has its 231 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:35,160 own worth, but its value also comes from the benefits it brings. 232 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:37,440 It's responsible for all manner of progress, 233 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:40,360 from cancer treatments to nuclear power, 234 00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:42,320 so when it comes to allocating funds, 235 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,360 do you try to anticipate the benefits 236 00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:48,320 the work MIGHT bring, or simply finance research for its own sake? 237 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:53,640 Now, this dilemma is something that John Tyndall was 238 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:57,160 well aware of as far back as 1873. 239 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:01,360 He said that, "Scientific discovery may not only put dollars 240 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:04,640 "in the pockets of individuals, but millions into the exchequers 241 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:10,240 "of nations, the history of science amply proves, but the hope of doing 242 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:15,880 "so never was, and never can be, the motive power of investigations." 243 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:18,640 In other words the acquisition of money, 244 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:23,080 the generation of profit, or even solving a particular goal, 245 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:26,240 cannot be the only reason for funding a particular piece 246 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:31,200 of research, because the acquisition of knowledge is priceless. 247 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:35,800 You might think that persuading society to support 248 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,840 the pursuit of knowledge through blue-skies research 249 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:42,360 is a modern phenomenon, but you'd be wrong. 250 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:45,080 It's a fight that has existed at the heart of science 251 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:46,840 from the very beginning. 252 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,560 Founded in 1660, to recognise, promote 253 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:03,400 and support excellence in science, the Royal Society 254 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:07,920 is a fellowship of the world's most eminent scientists, all of whom 255 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,840 have in some way contributed towards our understanding of the world. 256 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,800 So at first glance it can appear that this place was founded 257 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,840 solely for the blue-skies dreamers. 258 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:31,640 But a book written just a few years after the society was founded 259 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,320 shows that things aren't always what they seem. 260 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,680 The title is, The History of the Royal Society of London 261 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,440 For the Improving of Natural Knowledge. 262 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,160 This is an idealistic view of science, 263 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,720 the curiosity-led exploration of nature. 264 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:56,320 But things, of course, are always more complicated. 265 00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,840 And you can see that even here, in this picture, 266 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,280 at the side of the title page. 267 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:03,560 There are four figures in the picture. 268 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:05,920 Central is King Charles II, 269 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,560 who'd given the society its royal charter five years before. 270 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,680 And there's this figure here, this angelic figure. 271 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:17,920 It's thought that this is a Greek representation of fame. 272 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:21,400 You see it's placing a wreath on Kind Charles' head. 273 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:25,400 So this is saying, "To Charles, if you give us money, 274 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:29,680 "if you fund us, then you will become famous." 275 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:30,920 Why? 276 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:34,680 Well, you can see that by looking into the background of the picture. 277 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:38,760 The figures are surrounded by the instruments of science, 278 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:40,760 the achievements of science. 279 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:45,280 So there's a telescope here and clocks, and there's a gun here. 280 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:49,120 There are things that would enrich the country industrially 281 00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:53,080 and economically, as well as enriching knowledge. 282 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:57,040 So this picture is saying, "If you invest in science, then, yes, 283 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:01,120 "you will become famous, you will advance knowledge, 284 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:05,720 "but also, you will advance the economic interests of the country." 285 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:15,120 The natural philosophers of the Royal Society had realised 286 00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:19,320 that to pursue knowledge, to understand the world, 287 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:20,680 you need money. 288 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,880 And so the Royal Society went into overdrive. 289 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:32,240 It kept its promise to deliver wealth 290 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,240 and innovation to the country. 291 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:40,520 This was no place for airy-fairy ideas, like emulating fish. 292 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:44,680 Instead, they put science to work on immediate practical problems, 293 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:47,280 both abroad and on home soil. 294 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,360 They worked on everything from clocks to guns, even brewing. 295 00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:55,960 All things that would contribute to the economy, create wealth 296 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,360 and, of course, for the king, fame. 297 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:02,960 But it also had an unexpected consequence. 298 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:06,120 By actively going out and asking for money, 299 00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:10,280 the Royal Society had introduced a new concept into science. 30 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,240 Because science was now no longer just about curiosity. 301 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:18,080 It was about targeted research for economic gain. 302 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:22,200 And that's a tension that has been acutely felt ever since. 303 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,080 Some people believe that targeted science, 304 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,560 as done by the Royal Society, 305 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:40,360 has less intellectual merit than the pure pursuit of knowledge. 306 00:22:40,360 --> 00:22:44,600 One such thinker was the blue-skies man himself, John Tyndall. 307 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:49,200 In the 1870s, to an audience in America, 308 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,480 he said that behind all our practical applications, 309 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,880 there exists a region of intellectual action 310 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:59,520 to which practical men have rarely contributed, 311 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,200 but from which they draw all their supplies. 312 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:04,960 In other words, he knew 313 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,560 there is a distinction between blue-skies research 314 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:10,160 and applied research, 315 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,880 and he also knew which one had more intellectual merit. 316 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:23,360 As Tyndall saw it, his blue-skies science was far superior. 317 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:25,760 But this simple experiment demonstrates 318 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,120 the value of targeted science. 319 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:31,760 This is what's called a bimetallic strip. 320 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,440 Actually, it's two of them in parallel. 321 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:38,880 They're called bimetallic strips because one side is brass 322 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:40,640 and the other side is steel. 323 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:44,280 So you've got steel, brass, brass, steel. 324 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,200 As you can see, they're set up parallel to each other. 325 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,200 Simple enough. 326 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,240 But the value of this device only becomes clear 327 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:54,200 when the temperature changes. 328 00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:57,760 If I drop this into some boiling water... 329 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,360 ..then immediately... 330 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,520 ..those strips separate. 331 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:13,440 The reason for that is that brass expands more than steel 332 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,240 when you heat it to a given temperature. 333 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:22,200 Now, if you were a pure blue-skies scientist, as Tyndall meant, 334 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,280 then what you'd do is you'd say, 335 00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:26,440 "Well, that's interesting. I wonder why that is?" 336 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,080 And you'd start investigating 337 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,600 things like the atomic structure of the metals 338 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,160 to work out why they behave in that way. 339 00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:34,920 And that would be all you cared about. 340 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:38,320 Whereas, if you were one of those lesser-applied people, 341 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:39,880 as Tyndall would have it, 342 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,120 then you might ask questions such as, "How useful could this be?" 343 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:47,120 That's technology, that's engineering. 344 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:51,320 Well, the answer turns out to be this is very useful indeed. 345 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:07,200 So useful, in fact, that the inventor who came up with 346 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,600 the bimetallic strip believed it could change the world. 347 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,440 He was a man called John Harrison. 348 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,000 A man on a quest to solve a highly-specific problem. 349 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:37,240 One that caused a terrible accident 350 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,360 in the waters surrounding a small archipelago 351 00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:44,000 just off the south-western tip of the Cornish peninsular. 352 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,240 These are the Isles of Scilly. 353 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,080 On a calm day, they're a haven for tourists 354 00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:00,360 and locals who seek out the peace and tranquillity of the waters here. 355 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:11,320 But it's a different story when the weather is stormy. 356 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:20,240 The Scillies are a complex mixture of jagged rocks in the water 357 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:22,880 and perilous rock-fringed islands. 358 00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,840 If you get lost here, it's a graveyard. 359 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:40,560 On 22nd October, 1707, there was a tremendous storm, 360 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,440 just at the time when Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell 361 00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,720 was sailing his fleet back from a glorious naval defeat 362 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:49,800 in the south of France. 363 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,840 He wanted to turn east into the English Channel 364 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,960 to take the fleet home to Portsmouth. 365 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,000 But he was out of position. 366 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,840 And what he did was he turned east into the Scilly Isles. 367 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:06,640 His flagship, HMS Association, hit the rocks here at Gillstone. 368 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,360 This is an engraving of what it might have looked like. 369 00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:14,120 There were 800 men on HMS Association. 370 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:15,880 All of them lost their lives. 371 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,520 You can imagine what it would have been like. 372 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,360 They would have been smashed against rocks like this. 373 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:25,080 Sir Cloudesley went down with his men. 374 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,720 And three other of the ships also were wrecked. 375 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,280 They were swept north by the waves. 376 00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:43,160 All in all, somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 lives 377 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:44,800 were lost on that night. 378 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:49,240 It was the second worst peacetime disaster in British naval history. 379 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:55,160 And all because the fleet had no idea where they were. 380 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,440 Shovell and his men had no precise method, storm or not, 381 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,840 to calculate the fleet's longitude, 382 00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,400 their position east or west around the Earth. 383 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:17,160 They didn't stand a chance. 384 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:19,440 But they were by no means the first. 385 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,640 For centuries, ocean navigators had struggled to find their longitude 386 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,120 and repeatedly, voyages ended in tragedy. 387 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:38,440 So in 1714, shocked by the loss of Shovell's men, 388 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:43,080 Parliament demanded a method to find longitude be produced. 389 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:48,160 20,000 pounds would be paid for the most accurate solution. 390 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,480 The Board of Longitude was set up to adjudicate. 391 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:55,680 They were inundated with responses from mathematicians 392 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,040 and natural philosophers. 393 00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:01,080 But amongst the ideas was a surprising proposal. 394 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:07,080 And it came from Yorkshire-born carpenter John Harrison. 395 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:13,800 What the board were anticipating 396 00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,360 was some kind of fundamental geometrical method 397 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:17,640 for measuring longitude, 398 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,000 perhaps by looking at the positions of the stars 399 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:21,960 or the phases of the moon. 40 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:25,720 But Harrison had a more practical idea in mind. 401 00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:30,440 He knew that if you knew the time in Greenwich from your ship, 402 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:32,600 wherever it was in the world, 403 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:34,280 you could calculate the longitude 404 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,360 just by measuring the position of the sun in the sky. 405 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,360 The problem was that in the 1700s 406 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,560 nobody had built a clock accurately enough 407 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,680 to keep time on a long sea voyage. 408 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:51,480 So Harrison decided to build such a clock and thereby claim the prize. 409 00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,160 Producing a clock that remains accurate 410 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,040 on a rolling ship is not straightforward. 411 00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:07,240 Changing temperatures at sea play havoc with the mechanism, 412 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,320 causing the metal components of the clock to expand or contract, 413 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,160 varying the speed at which the wheels turn 414 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,480 and making the clock either lose or gain time. 415 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:27,520 So Harrison invented his bimetallic strip to compensate. 416 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,640 As the strip curves to varying degrees, 417 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:32,760 depending on the temperature, 418 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,280 it adjusts the time keepers accordingly 419 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:38,920 and ensures that the clock's accuracy is maintained, 420 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:40,360 whatever the temperature. 421 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,880 Bristling with other Harrison inventions, like ball bearings 422 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:54,120 which produced friction, the clocks worked brilliantly. 423 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:01,720 25 years after he began, Harrison eventually presented the board 424 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,520 with what was essentially a large pocket watch. 425 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:09,840 13 centimetres in diameter, he called it the H4. 426 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:18,880 Now, the principle of finding longitude is very simple. 427 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,080 All you need to know is the difference in time 428 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,560 between noon where you are and noon in Greenwich. 429 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:31,880 What I have to do is watch the sun as it tracks across the sky 430 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,120 and look for the time when it reaches its highest point, 431 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,000 zenith, that's noon here. 432 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,640 And then I read off that time 433 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,920 on a clock that's been set to Greenwich Mean Time, 434 00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:51,080 and that time here in the Isles of Scilly 435 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,600 is...about... 436 00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:01,560 ..now. 437 00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:06,920 Which is 12:39 and 20 seconds. 438 00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,280 I can feed that number, 39 minutes and 20 seconds, 439 00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:15,160 into a few equations, they're called the equation of time values, 440 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,080 they take account of things like the Earth's orbit, 441 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:21,240 and out will come my longitude. 442 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:24,200 So my longitude here in the Scilly Isles 443 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,680 is 6.29 degrees west of Greenwich. 444 00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,080 For its maiden voyage to Jamaica, 445 00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,680 Harrison's clock was at sea for two months. 446 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,800 Thanks partly to its bimetallic strip, 447 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:44,000 it lost just 5.1 seconds. 448 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,480 It was a triumph for Harrison. 449 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:55,360 However, Harrison was quick to learn the real price 450 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,960 of financial assistance from the Board of Longitude. 451 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:02,440 The Board were made up of astronomers 452 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,400 and they were very much in Tyndall's camp. 453 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,440 They expected that the longitude problem would be solved 454 00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:12,480 by some kind of advance in our fundamental understanding 455 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,160 of the universe, a pure solution. 456 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,520 So every time Harrison came along 457 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:21,160 with his rather more applied idea, they rejected it. 458 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:25,160 And it wasn't until Harrison presented his fifth timepiece 459 00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:27,720 that the board almost reluctantly 460 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,800 accepted that the problem had been solved, 461 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:33,120 and even then, they didn't pay him the full prize money. 462 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:38,600 But the longitude problem had been solved 463 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,240 by the British government funding applied science. 464 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:45,880 And, in fact, so accurate is Harrison's solution 465 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:47,920 that this method was still used 466 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:52,240 for finding the position of ships until the 1970s. 467 00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,320 What Harrison and the longitude story shows 468 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:03,000 is that it isn't only Tyndall's blue-skies science 469 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,840 that can lead to profoundly important results. 470 00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:07,440 If you have a specific problem 471 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,960 and you focus time and effort and money on it, 472 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,160 then applied science can be equally successful. 473 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,800 Harrison's clock marked the beginning 474 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:22,640 of a string of important problems 475 00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,760 that would be solved by science. 476 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,520 Already, agriculturists like Jethro Tull 477 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,680 had transformed the efficiency of Britain's food production. 478 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,440 Now it was the turn of other practical men 479 00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:44,320 to improve things still further. 480 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,240 Electricity, once just an interesting sideshow, 481 00:34:53,240 --> 00:34:55,400 was moved centre stage. 482 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,440 Joseph Swan produced the electric light bulb, 483 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:02,280 transforming life by extending the useful day. 484 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:08,960 In 1837, Wheatstone and Cooke's electric telegraph 485 00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,520 shrank the world almost overnight. 486 00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:16,160 And 40 years later, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone 487 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:18,080 shrank it still further. 488 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:23,960 Britons designed steam turbines, 489 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,840 commercialised steel production 490 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,840 produced vacuum cleaners 491 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,040 and made artificial hips. 492 00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:38,000 This was science at its crowd-pleasing best. 493 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:42,880 Progress made, lives transformed, wealth generated. 494 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:47,200 It's what the Royal Society promised to do all those years ago. 495 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:53,120 Fulfilment of the dreams expressed in Boyle's rather bizarre list. 496 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,600 I mean, we've even been able to emulate fish 497 00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:00,360 through the invention of the aqualung and submarines. 498 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,160 But let's not forget item one on Boyle's list, 499 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,800 the prolongation of life. 50 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:07,960 This is the area of targeted science 501 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:10,840 that we surely care about most of all - 502 00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:12,400 the extension of our lives 503 00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,840 through the development of new drugs and new treatments. 504 00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:21,200 THIS is an area in which Britain has always excelled. 505 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,480 Companies like Glaxo, Beecham and Wellcome 506 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,560 were at the forefront of drug discovery and manufacture 507 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,120 in Britain for most of the 20th century. 508 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,880 The British pharmaceutical industry 509 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,960 has produced drugs from penicillin to Zantac. 510 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:55,520 They have pioneered antibiotic medicine, 511 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:57,280 enabled mass vaccination 512 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,960 and made many previously-fatal conditions treatable. 513 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,000 Today, those companies in Britain exist 514 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,640 as the fourth-largest pharmaceutical company in the world - 515 00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:15,680 GlaxoSmithKline. 516 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,920 A part of an industry worth an estimated 200 billion pound a year. 517 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,680 And it's not a business that hangs around waiting for happy accidents. 518 00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:29,240 What I'm amazed about is the level of sort of work here 519 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:34,360 compared to a university. There's so many people actually doing things. 520 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,480 GSK is behind many of the pharmaceuticals 521 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,840 that are commonplace in today's market, 522 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,520 from painkillers to asthma inhalers. 523 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,440 One of their biggest research and development hubs is here, 524 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:52,240 on home soil, 20 miles north of London in Stevenage. 525 00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:58,240 I love that. Philadelphia, Shanghai, Stevenage(!) 526 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:02,040 So this lab, in general, this is the early discovery within biopharm... 527 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,680 Dr Tom Webb joined GSK three years ago 528 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,400 and has been working to develop new drugs ever since. 529 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,560 How do you do it? 530 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,400 I mean, if somebody comes along from management to GSK and said, 531 00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:22,800 "Right, we need a drug to treat arthritis. A new one." 532 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,920 Um...what do you do? Do you say, "OK. Um..." 533 00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:28,960 Run around screaming(!) Yes! Here's a test tube(!) 534 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:33,160 So...it's an incredibly complex process. 535 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,440 Drug discovery takes ten to 15 years. 536 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:39,600 It starts off with a target in mind for treating that disease 537 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:41,880 and then we start off with huge libraries. 538 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,880 Those might be libraries of small molecules, 539 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:47,120 so containing tens of thousands of different chemical compounds, 540 00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:50,280 and it's starting with all of these potential medicines 541 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:54,440 and really whittling them down to one candidate, one medicine. 542 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:59,360 So that sounds very, very... A targeted approach. Absolutely. 543 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,600 You have a specific example, a specific challenge in mind. 544 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,080 It's a beautiful example, isn't it, of a...a... 545 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:07,800 Almost like an industrial-scale search. Absolutely. 546 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,800 For useful antibodies or useful drugs. Sure. 547 00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:12,960 And we're getting better and better at doing it 548 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,160 as we gain more experience. 549 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:20,360 The screenings done at pharmaceutical companies such as GSK 550 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:23,560 allow researchers to test millions of different compounds, 551 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,440 antibodies or genes to see if they'll work 552 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,520 as part of a new drug or treatment. 553 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:33,080 The scale of the work means the chance of success 554 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:36,840 over conventional research methods is dramatically increased. 555 00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,800 One of GSK's medicines is a treatment for lupus. 556 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:46,200 Lupus is a disease which hasn't seen any new treatments for 50 years. 557 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,760 And as a result of this really sort of strategic way of working, 558 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:51,480 having a target in mind 559 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,520 and developing a medicine for that target using a library, 560 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:58,280 has enabled us to market this medicine in lupus. 561 00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:02,960 Sufferers of lupus are often plagued with tiredness, 562 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,040 skin rashes, joint pain and swelling 563 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:10,880 as their immune system attacks the body's own healthy cells. 564 00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:13,520 Symptoms this new drug has helped to relieve. 565 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,360 And other treatments are emerging as a product of this strategic 566 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,880 and focused method of developing medicines. 567 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,960 In your view, are the great advances of the future 568 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:27,480 going to come from that targeted approach 569 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,480 because you can apply a great amount of brain power on it, 570 00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:33,800 or is somewhere, Pasteur sat in his shed with a Petri dish... 571 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:36,840 Yeah, yeah! ..who's going to say, "No, it's here!" 572 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,640 It's a great question. If we were just playing around in the lab, 573 00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,640 I think the likelihood of us stumbling across a discovery 574 00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,680 that enables us to make a medicine is probably unlikely. 575 00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,280 So we have to commit to making medicines for patients, 576 00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:51,520 and that doesn't happen by complete serendipity. 577 00:40:57,520 --> 00:40:59,920 The pharmaceutical industry in Britain 578 00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:02,240 is a triumph for home-grown science, 579 00:41:02,240 --> 00:41:05,920 providing cures for previously-untreatable diseases 580 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:09,520 and changing the lives of millions of patients around the world. 581 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:15,240 This is an impressive place and it's science on an industrial scale. 582 00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:17,760 And you see these vast research labs. 583 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:21,240 And that's what you need, because you have to do hundreds of thousands 584 00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:24,640 or even millions of individual experiments 585 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:26,320 to bring a new drug to market. 586 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,800 It also costs billions of pounds. 587 00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,040 So this is targeted science. 588 00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:35,040 There are particular problems that need solutions. 589 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:37,320 There's a particular disease that needs treating. 590 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:39,600 And I suppose for medical science as a whole, 591 00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:41,960 if you can state its goal in one simple sentence, 592 00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:44,240 it's to make people better. 593 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:50,280 It's undeniable that targeted research delivers, 594 00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,320 but, and it's a big but, 595 00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:55,720 there is a catch. And it's this. 596 00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,400 In any commercial environment, 597 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,360 specific targeting brings with it a possibility 598 00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:05,040 that during the process of discovery, any kind of result 599 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:09,400 that doesn't positively enhance the chance of success may be ignored. 60 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:17,200 Now, on the face of it, that seems fair enough. 601 00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:20,960 But in fact, it's extremely worrying indeed. 602 00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:24,400 See, if you look through the History of Science, 603 00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,280 through any scientific journal, 604 00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,280 then you'll find that the negative results are recorded, 605 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:32,800 as well as the positive ones. 606 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,440 And that's important because all knowledge is valuable. 607 00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:41,560 But in a commercial setting where you're asking a question, 608 00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:44,400 "Can we find a drug to cure this particular disease, 609 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:46,240 "to do this particular job?" 610 00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:50,520 Then the temptation is to ignore the negative results. 611 00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:53,000 This is almost anti-knowledge. 612 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,160 It goes against the ethos of science. 613 00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:59,680 And, more importantly, it closes the doors 614 00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:04,280 to some magnificent, serendipitous discoveries. 615 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:14,280 One such discovery came from a young scientist 616 00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,480 who began his career earlier than most. 617 00:43:17,960 --> 00:43:21,280 A career that heralded a new dawn for modern chemistry. 618 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,440 At first sight, this is a fairly unremarkable photograph. 619 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:29,960 You can see it's of a young boy in Victorian clothes, 620 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,360 it's framed quite nicely. 621 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:36,840 It's only when you start to understand the story behind the photograph 622 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:39,200 that it becomes very interesting indeed. 623 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:54,760 This is a self-portrait of a 14-year-old boy. 624 00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:57,600 He took it in 1852, 625 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:01,680 which is only just over ten years after the invention of photography. 626 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:05,400 So photography was still experimental at this time. 627 00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:07,760 And he would've had to have an array 628 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:12,000 of quite complex chemicals in his house. 629 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:15,040 So given the quality of this photograph, 630 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:19,640 then that makes him a very precocious individual indeed. 631 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,920 His name is William Perkin. He was the son of an East End carpenter. 632 00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,600 And his father must've recognised his talent, 633 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,160 or at least valued education, 634 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,600 because just one year later, at the age of 15, 635 00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:39,040 he was sent to the Royal College of Chemistry to learn chemistry. 636 00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:43,160 To become what we'd now call a scientist. 637 00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:49,160 We know he had an inquiring mind, 638 00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:51,040 not because he took the picture, 639 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:53,880 but because of what he did just four years later. 640 00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:03,240 When he started his career, Perkin was living in exciting times. 641 00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:04,960 This was the age of empire. 642 00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:06,920 A world where in time, 643 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:11,080 the sun really would never set on British Imperial assets. 644 00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:13,680 But as the empire expanded, 645 00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:17,040 so, too, did the risk to Britain's colonialists 646 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:21,360 as they were exposed to deadly tropical diseases such as malaria. 647 00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:24,520 Fortunately, there was relief available for malaria 648 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:27,400 in the form of a drug called quinine. 649 00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:31,480 But it could only be extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, 650 00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:35,320 which grows on the remote eastern slopes of the Andes, 651 00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,960 making it expensive and difficult to get hold of. 652 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:43,360 What was needed was a more reliable and cheaper source. 653 00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:55,760 So the young William Perkin was set to work 654 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:59,040 to find a way to make synthetic quinine in the lab. 655 00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:08,560 This is a mock-up of what Perkin did. 656 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:11,080 Not using the real chemicals because they're dangerous, 657 00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:14,880 but the idea is simple and the logic is impeccable. 658 00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:18,800 So this is quinine, the white powder that Perkin wanted to make. 659 00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,120 Now, he knew this was made of carbon, 660 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,880 nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen, 661 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,880 and he also knew the proportions. 662 00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,080 So he reasoned like this. 663 00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:32,240 Why don't I take something simpler, an amine, 664 00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:34,520 actually an amine called aniline, 665 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:37,160 which is a ring of carbons 666 00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,520 with a nitrogen and a couple of hydrogens stuck on the end. 667 00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:44,680 So it's everything you need, apart from the oxygen. 668 00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,160 He then took this, potassium dichromate, 669 00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:50,800 which is a strong oxidising agent. 670 00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:54,600 Now, today, we know that this rips electrons off things, 671 00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,600 but Perkin thought that it added oxygen. 672 00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:00,640 And so, you see what he wanted to do? 673 00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:02,760 He wanted to take a simple compound 674 00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:05,080 with carbons, nitrogens and hydrogens, 675 00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:08,160 mix them together with something that stuck oxygens on 676 00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:11,240 and produce quinine. 677 00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:18,800 So...he just dissolved this potassium dichromate in solution, 678 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:23,600 dissolved some amines in dilute sulphuric acid, 679 00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:27,240 turned the tap, mixed them together... 680 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:31,240 ..heated them up, and waited. 681 00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:42,880 And at the end of the experiment, what he got was a muddy, black mess. 682 00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:47,040 In other words, apparently, the experiment had failed. 683 00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,160 Had Perkin been working in a modern commercial environment, 684 00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:54,560 he might well have stopped here. 685 00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:57,040 But what happened next is a prime example 686 00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,760 of why the inquiring mind must be given the freedom to explore 687 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,320 and knowledge should never be lost. 688 00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:07,800 What it's thought is that Perkin just decided to go back, 689 00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:13,160 cleaning up the apparatus after making this dark sludge, 690 00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:16,600 but what he noticed is that the residue 691 00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:21,160 seemed to colour whatever it touched purple. 692 00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:23,120 So being a good experimental chemist, 693 00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,680 he decided to investigate further. 694 00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:28,560 So he took that residue, 695 00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:32,720 and this is actually a real sample of that chemical, 696 00:48:32,720 --> 00:48:34,880 and he started trying to purify it 697 00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,400 to investigate it, to understand its properties. 698 00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:41,040 So he mixed it with petroleum 699 00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:44,400 and then he mixed it with ethanol. 70 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,000 And if I just dab a bit of cloth into this... 701 00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:59,760 ..then it dyes it bright purple. 702 00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:04,280 So Perkin had discovered a dye which he called mauveine. 703 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:13,240 Perkin's dye was far superior to anything created by nature, 704 00:49:13,240 --> 00:49:17,080 and one that could be mass produced at a fraction of the cost. 705 00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,040 It quickly gained popularity 706 00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:21,760 after Queen Victoria appeared at her daughter's wedding 707 00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:25,560 in a silk gown dyed with mauveine. 708 00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:28,040 Thanks to Perkin, the 1890s 709 00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:31,520 are now affectionately known as the Mauve Decade. 710 00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:37,840 But it didn't stop there. 711 00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:41,640 Synthetic dyes have been brightening our lives ever since. 712 00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:45,360 Perkin helped usher in the dawn of organic chemistry. 713 00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:49,760 A new age of products, from plastics to perfumes and medicines. 714 00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:54,840 The interesting thing about William Perkin 715 00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:59,040 is that if he'd set out with the aim of discovering a new purple dye, 716 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,960 then he probably would've failed. 717 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,840 And if he hadn't been a curious scientist 718 00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:09,040 wanting to understand why his experiment didn't seem to work, 719 00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:12,160 then again, he would've probably failed to discover that dye. 720 00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:16,200 Perkin's story is a warning 721 00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:19,640 of the potential perils of targeted research. 722 00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,320 Had he been working in a commercial environment, 723 00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:25,440 it's likely that because the purple dye wasn't quinine, 724 00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,400 his further investigations 725 00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,760 would've been thought to be an expensive waste of time. 726 00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:34,800 So though targeted science appears to give us what we want, 727 00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:36,760 there is the very real chance 728 00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:41,000 that it can mean we miss out on unexpected discoveries. 729 00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:54,280 There have always been arguments about the purpose of science. 730 00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:58,200 Whether its primary role should be the pure pursuit of knowledge, 731 00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,840 or whether its main value is in the application of science 732 00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:07,480 to solving problems that improve our lot, serving society. 733 00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:08,920 It's a balancing act 734 00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:12,600 and one that hasn't always been easy to get right. 735 00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:16,800 But here, on a piece of land behind St Pancras Station in London, 736 00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:20,040 a fresh attempt at the perfect mix is under way. 737 00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:26,920 This is no ordinary building site. 738 00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:32,080 This is what will become the Francis Crick Institute. 739 00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:35,320 A groundbreaking new scientific institution. 740 00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:43,880 At the helm of this new project is the president of the Royal Society, 741 00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:45,640 Professor Sir Paul Nurse. 742 00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:48,960 And he's determined that this will be the best of both worlds. 743 00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:52,960 A place that will give the public what they want from science, 744 00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:57,160 whilst also giving unprecedented freedom to the inquiring mind. 745 00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:03,880 Well, the scale of this building is a thing that surprises me. 746 00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:06,200 It's immense. It really is immense. 747 00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:07,640 Cavernous, actually. Yeah. 748 00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:11,200 So up here, we're going to have offices, seminar rooms, laboratories. 749 00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:14,040 As you go up, we've got about three floors 750 00:52:14,040 --> 00:52:17,200 of laboratories on this side, four on the other. 751 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:21,360 But you can spot everybody because of the atrium in the middle. 752 00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:26,320 And this will be the cafeteria for up to 1,500 researchers. 753 00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:35,280 When completed in 2015, 754 00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:38,800 this will be the largest biomedical research centre in Britain. 755 00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:45,520 And uniquely, engineers, physicists, chemists and biologists 756 00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:48,360 will all work together under one roof. 757 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,320 I want to produce something like a sort of creative anarchy. 758 00:52:57,320 --> 00:53:00,840 I'm not going to divide all these up into different departments. 759 00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:02,720 They're all going to be mixing together. 760 00:53:02,720 --> 00:53:05,240 And I'm hoping that will spark off something new. 761 00:53:05,240 --> 00:53:08,480 So that the architecture reflects not only the philosophy, 762 00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:11,960 but the way that you think science should be done? 763 00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:13,360 It really does that. 764 00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,040 We wanted many different scientists to work together. 765 00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:19,120 The building's designed to produce exactly that. 766 00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:22,160 By allowing all disciplines to mix together, 767 00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:24,720 this building will offer immense creative freedom 768 00:53:24,720 --> 00:53:26,920 for those blue-skies thinkers. 769 00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:29,720 But everyone will also share the targeted goal 770 00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:33,160 of delivering useful science to the British public. 771 00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:35,280 It's a biomedical research institute 772 00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:39,320 and it will do discovery science to work out how living organisms, 773 00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:40,760 living things, work, 774 00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,120 but always with the objective 775 00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:47,320 of what relevance will that be to medical problems. 776 00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:52,320 I think this idea of undirected creativity, 777 00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:55,200 but with a purpose in mind, 778 00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:57,760 which, as you say, is to understand life, living things, 779 00:53:57,760 --> 00:53:59,640 that's important, isn't it? 780 00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:02,800 Look, good science is done by great individuals 781 00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:07,160 with a creative vision about what they're trying to do. 782 00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:09,240 If you direct them too much top-down, 783 00:54:09,240 --> 00:54:10,680 you never get that creativity. 784 00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:14,160 You know, you can't tell a Picasso what to paint. 785 00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:18,120 Picasso will have a creative idea and want to do it himself. 786 00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:19,960 It's the same for a scientist. 787 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:23,600 The Francis Crick Institute 788 00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:27,200 will give space for scientists to make serendipitous discoveries, 789 00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:32,080 whilst also giving society medical research that will change the world. 790 00:54:39,720 --> 00:54:42,800 The story of Science Britannica is, in many respects, 791 00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:45,920 the story of science itself. 792 00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:49,760 This collection of rocks in the North Atlantic has produced 793 00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:54,040 far more than its fair share of world-class scientists. 794 00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:56,200 And has been the scene of more discoveries 795 00:54:56,200 --> 00:55:00,320 and inventions than any nation could reasonably expect. 796 00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:07,600 That it happened here is partly serendipitous. 797 00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:11,640 The fact that the likes of Robert Boyle, Humphry Davy 798 00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:15,600 and Isaac Newton were born here is down to chance. 799 00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:20,800 That they were able to thrive here is not. 80 00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:25,880 The establishment of our ancient universities, 801 00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:28,320 where all these great scientists were educated, 802 00:55:28,320 --> 00:55:32,720 together with the formation of the great institutions of science, 803 00:55:32,720 --> 00:55:35,240 the Royal Society and the Royal Institution, 804 00:55:35,240 --> 00:55:39,240 have all ensured that Britain is a place where science 805 00:55:39,240 --> 00:55:43,040 and scientists continue to be celebrated. 806 00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,960 Whaa-hah! 807 00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:51,720 And that purple vapour there is iodine. 808 00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:56,800 The relative freedom that scientists enjoy in Britain 809 00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:01,240 has meant that cutting-edge research has always been done here. 810 00:56:01,240 --> 00:56:03,680 And while that research is sometimes controversial, 811 00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:07,920 the benefits it has brought have been immeasurable. 812 00:56:07,920 --> 00:56:10,640 Now, in the 21st century, 813 00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:15,240 Britain is still pre-eminent in many areas of science and engineering. 814 00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:27,960 But it's vitally important we don't take this position for granted. 815 00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:31,040 It seems to me that means making sure 816 00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:35,080 we don't constrain the next Boyle, Davy or Newton 817 00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:39,520 by forcing them to deliver only what it's thought society needs. 818 00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:49,040 We must also ensure that they are encouraged to be free thinkers 819 00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:50,600 like John Tyndall, 820 00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:53,400 who pursued his blue-skies research, 821 00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:54,560 or William Perkin, 822 00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:58,000 who saw the practical potential in his discoveries. 823 00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:15,280 William Perkin is not one of our country's most famous scientists, 824 00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:18,680 but I believe he should be better known because his career encompasses 825 00:57:18,680 --> 00:57:21,560 all the necessary facets of modern science. 826 00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:28,160 I mean, here was a man who was not afraid to pursue targeted research. 827 00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:31,440 In his case, the hunt for a way to prevent malaria. 828 00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:33,640 But when that research threw up 829 00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:35,800 an interesting and unexpected result, 830 00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:38,000 he was curious enough to follow that through. 831 00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:40,920 And he discovered a strange purple dye 832 00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:45,560 which he then turned into a successful business, made money, 833 00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:48,800 and reinvested that money in future research. 834 00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:56,680 Today, more than ever, science is expensive. 835 00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,560 And more often than not, the public pay for it. 836 00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:03,560 So scientists have a responsibility to ensure that their knowledge 837 00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:05,720 is used for the good of society 838 00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:08,840 and, where appropriate, for commercial gain. 839 00:58:08,840 --> 00:58:13,320 BUT science is based on curiosity. 840 00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:17,000 So society also has a responsibility to science, 841 00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:19,320 which is to always ensure 842 00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:21,800 that there's space for the dreamers to dream. 843 00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:37,120 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd