Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | The Archaeologists | 20110804 | 20110807 (R4) | In the first of a new series, Peter Curran puts archaeologists under his anthropological microscope. Do the scientists who discover and interpret lives in the distant past have a distinctive culture and mind set of their own? To find out, Peter visits a tribe of British archaeologists at their excavations on the island of Jersey. For 250 000 years, Jersey was a magnet for bands of nomadic Neanderthals and later Stone age hunter gatherers. During much of that time, sea level was lower than today and you could walk to Jersey from Britain or France. When ice ages waned, groups of Palaeolithic people gravitated there to hunt mammoths, rhinos and reindeer. Today Jersey is drawing archaeologists from all over the UK because of its windows into the early Stone Age past. One is in a rocky ravine by the sea and the other in a farmer's field. While the scientists want to learn about the people and their lives in the landscape back then, Peter Curran gets down in the dirt to find out what makes the archaeologists tick and what might distinguish them as a tribe of science. Peter explores what drives the desire to spend a summer month crouched in the dirt with trowels and sieves, and hears about tribal life in the archaeolological trenches. Peter Curran encounters a tribe of archaeologists, digging up Stone Age life on Jersey. Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science |
| 02 | Diamond Beam Line Scientists | 20110811 | 20110814 (R4) | The scientific tribe that Peter Curran meets this week has a spectacular gleaming home. The tribal dwelling place is a gigantic silver doughnut in the Oxfordshire countryside. Within this flying saucer-like construction is the UK's largest particle accelerator and it functions as the country's most powerful x-ray machine. It's called the Diamond Light Source synchotron and it enables scientists to peer deep inside matter at the scale of atoms. Four years old, it's the newest of Britain's megascience facilities. Hordes of researchers visit every year to image and study everything from new drug compounds to novel materials for computers, tiny viruses to meteorites, and Dead Sea Scroll parchment to aircraft wing alloys. The work of the visitors is only possible thanks to the resident scientists who run Diamond's experimental stations called beam lines. These are labs are positioned at different points around the giant accelerator's ring. At these points, beams of radiation - from x rays to ultraviolet - fire out from the doughnut and are channelled for use in research projects. Peter Curran puts the beam line scientists under his own anthropological microscope. The beam line scientists are largely physicists and chemists by background and each of the 15 beamlines has its own team of them, working in units called 'hutches'. The researchers have designed and built each station and are responsible for its smooth operation and pristine maintenance. They host the researchers who come to use the facilities. Some of these beamlines are operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Peter aims to discover what working life is like in the UK's most glittering new science facility and what might characterise the average beam liner. What are the thrills of harnessing radiation from Britain's biggest particle accelerator, and what are the more onerous aspects? How do the beam line scientists feel about having the responsibility of being keepers of Diamond's light when that role means they forgo full pursuit their own research? What's the formula for maintaining a harmonious hutch? Producer; Andrew Luck-Baker. Peter Curran meets the tribe of physicists who run the UK's Diamond Light synchotron. Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science |
| 03 | The Statisticians | 20110818 | 20110821 (R4) | At the annual Royal Statistical Society Awards and Summer Reception, Peter Curran puts the tribe of statisticians under his anthropological microscope. What rouses the passions of statisticians? What are the differences between them and mathematicians? How do they feel about the way politicians and the media make use their hard work? And what is a micromort? Peter's sample of statistically significant seven are Valerie Isham, David Hand, Vernon and Daniel Farewell, David Spiegelhalter, Sheila Bird and Jane Galbraith (the unnamed truth-seeker at the pre-awards drinks). Peter Curran counts the passions of statisticians. Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science |
| 04 | Antarctic Scientists | 20110825 | 20110828 (R4) | Peter Curran puts scientists at the British Antarctic Survey under his anthropological lens. What are the passions and survival strategies of this ice-bound tribe? Peter meets the geologists who live in two-man tents for months in the Antarctic ice fields, hundreds of miles from nearest people. He also talks to a polar marine biologist about how she copes with months apart from her 3 year old son. Peter hears about the thrills, sights and sounds of diving under the sea ice, and glaciologist Rob Mulvaney reveals the nightlife to be had on the frozen continent, under the snow. Peter Curran puts scientists who work in Antarctica under his anthropological lens. Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science |
| 05 | Volcanologists | 20110830 | 20110904 (R4) | A lad's mag claimed that being a volcanologist was the second coolest job in the world after being an astronaut. This scientific tribe also loses one member each year, on average, in a fatal accident on a volcano. Peter Curran puts on his anthropological hard hat and asks what makes these researchers risk life and limb, clambering around active volcanoes? Are they driven by a desire to protect local people by understanding the timing of eruptions. Or are they drawn like moths to the sulphurous flames in a purely scientific quest. Peter talks to volcanologists based at the University of Bristol, some of whom worked on Montserrat during the heights of the Caribbean island's volcanic crisis in 1997. He hears stories of crater-based craziness inside Mount Etna and a slide down a flow of volcanic glass. Peter Curran meets the scientists who are drawn to study volcanoes. Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science |