Having already presented major documentary series titled Wonders of the Solar System, Wonders of the Universe and Wonders of Life, it was hard to guess where there was left to go for Britain’s favourite TV scientist. And so we have something of a departure from Brian Cox’s usual type of programme. Rather than squashing a wealth of facts about life, the universe and everything into hourly chunks and trotting to as many locations as possible, Cox has downsized with Science Britannica (BBC Two). He travelled little further than London, Cambridge, Norwich and north Wales for the first episode of his three-part historical guide to Britain’s contributions to the development of science.
That said, it was no less atmospheric, as Cox ambled through the narrowing passage of the Old Bailey (formerly Newgate Prison), performed Victorian experiments in a darkened lecture theatre, and explored the disused buildings of the site where the initial work on the atom bomb took place.
This opening episode examined the darker sides to science and the public’s distrust of scientific advancement. We’re all aware of the fear of meddling too far, as captured in the fiction of Mary Shelley, and seen in real life when experiments with atoms led to the detonation of two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But the message that travelled through Cox’s programme was how even the scariest areas of science can lead to important and necessary advancement.
Meeting Eileen Doxford, a former technician who was part of the atom bomb project (unbeknown to her at the time), Cox asked her point of view of the work with the benefit of hindsight. “I felt dreadful when I thought about all the people that had been killed,” she said. “But if it helped to end the war, which was a dreadful thing, then yes I feel pleased that I made a very minute contribution.”
Heading into similarly murky waters, Cox gave consideration to animal testing, believed by most in the medical profession to be a necessary evil given how it has saved and improved so many human lives. And he took in the arrival of genetically modified crops and the vehement opposition to them by the general public – a reaction dubbed “silly” by plant geneticist Jonathan Jones, who firmly stated that these developments can actively help to protect our crops.
Jones’s view, Cox claimed, is backed up by a vast body of research. “If GM crops are to survive in this country then the scientists need to find a better way to persuade the public to share their confidence,” he said. No doubt, the seal of approval from a well-respected figure such as Cox will help there.