Our guest this week is our favourite man of numbers, Oxford University professor, Marcus du Sautoy. He's talking about the Story of Maths, a series of films he has made for BBC4 where he travels the globe looking for the roots of his subject. He weaves us a tale of Egyptian farmers, Greek philosophers and the Indians who came up with the number zero.
We had the IgNobels last week, now it's time for their arguably less-famous
cousins the, er, Nobel prizes. James Randerson takes us through this year's
winners: everything from HIV research through fluorescent pigs to
spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Also, with a brand new science minister just days into his job, we grill
Paul Drayson on his plans for the future of the subject in the UK and ask
the crucial question - does he likes the idea of a British astronauts.
(Fortunately he does)
All that plus a newsjam filled with controversial doctors, mammals in
trouble and the discovery that women have higher voices when they are
fertile.
