Past Programs
Education - 2008
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003
In Conversation - John Jenkin
07/12/2008
To complement the Boyer Lectures we present some in depth interviews by robyn Williams from his program In Conversation. This week Robyn speaks with Professor John Jenkin. When he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Adelaide, British physicist William Bragg, barely 22, had never lectured, done lab work or conducted research. A few years later he was a giant in the field. His son, Lawrence, went on to become the youngest winner in history of a Nobel Prize in science. How did this father and son change the world, invent a new field of science - yet be unknown to most Australians? Professor John Jenkin of La Trobe University tells the tale
For a transcript and further details visit the In Conversation website
In Conversation - Professor Sandra Harding
23/11/2008
To complement the Boyer Lectures we present some in depth interviews by robyn Williams from his program In Conversation. this week Robyn speaks with Professor Sandra Harding, the relatively new vice-chancellor at James Cook University in Townsville. Professor Harding reminds us that over one third of Australia is tropical and yet only one major university in this country, apart from Charles Darwin in the NT, is properly equipped to handle the range of topics so important to the north of our region. And, unlike some, they also have a successful campus in Singapore.
For a transcript and further details visit the In Conversation website
2008 Boyer Lectures - A Golden Age of Freedom, Lecture 4: Fortune favours the smart
23/11/2008
An important theme of Rupert Murdoch's 2008 Boyer Lectures is the pressing need for Australia to develop human capital. But to do this successfully our schools need serious reform, otherwise the global bar will seem set far beyond our reach.
Massey Lectures 2007: The City of Words, Lecture 2, The Tablets of Gilgamesh
06/04/2008
Living together with our differences is understood as a practical project, mostly civic and political. But can stories, in all their variety, play a part? In the 2007 Massey Lectures, writer Alberto Manguel takes a fresh look at living peacefully together, using the best that poets and writers have had to say about the matter. In his second lecture Manguel revisits the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh; a story of how a city was made magnificent and just.
For copyright reasons this series is not available as a podcast
The Cosmic Jackpot: Dr Paul Davies
16/03/2008
Could the universe have been other than what it is? For some cosmologists the universe appears a little too geared for life. From the humble carbon atom to the speed of light, everything is tailor made to bring us life as we know it. So, is cosmic bio friendliness just good luck? Or is there someone or something pulling the levers?
One man who has dared to ask this question is internationally acclaimed physicist and cosmologist Dr Paul Davies of Arizona State University. Davies is setting up a pioneering centre for the study of life, the universe, and everything.
