Tackling the great challenges of the 21st century
Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society and Lord Stern, President of the British Academy, discussed the new opportunities – and need – for collaboration between the traditional academic disciplines to respond to the big issues of our time,....
More details | Watch nowWriting wrongs – Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
What role do literature, science and policy play in protecting the planet? Fifty years since the death of conservationist Rachel Carson, we look at her masterpiece Silent Spring, and ask: "What have we learnt? Listen to our panel of experts: author ....
More details | Watch nowThe Royal Society and the Rothschild ‘Controversy’
In the early months of 1971 the Heath government asked Lord Victor Rothschild to Ôthink the unthinkableÕ in his investigation into government policy. His subsequent report on research funding proposed something the Royal Society judged to be wholly....
More details | Watch nowThe social function of history: policy, history and twentieth-century science
Historians bring to thinking about science policy a very particular understanding which should be central to policy: historians are trained to know in their bones that the future is unknown and to understand the power of the cheap futurism which char....
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