Those of you who were kids in the UK will probably remember Johnny Ball. His wikipedia entry doesn't do him justice - when I was a kid, he was this relentlessly joyous bundle of energy talking about crazy maths and sciencey stuff on TV, and I thought he was great. To my mind, he's still one of the greatest communicators of maths and science this country has ever had, and his stupid grin has probably launched more young people onto science careers than anything or anyone else.He's giving a talk to the Royal Society on Tuesday, which will be webcast live, about his career. It's also free to go to, if you happen to be in the area. I guess that's why I'm really posting it - given the decline in popularity of science subjects in schools, I would have thought there'd be a lot of interest in finding out more about how and why Johnny Ball was so good at popularizing it. It seems strange (and maybe a little sad) to me that nobody thinks it's worth charging money (or even pre-booking) to hear him.
8 comments:
Ace!
"Johnny Ball reveals all!". He is probably responsible for my admiration for the 'mad-scientist' profession.
I met Johnny Ball a couple of years ago at one of the annual Scientists Meet the Media bashes held at the Royal Society. Basically they take scientists, journalists, science communicators and hangers-on (Sian Lloyd the weather presenter, for example) and put them in a room with stacks of booze.
I got drunk enough to actually say hello to my heroes, including JB. He was very nice, though rather bitter at how he'd been treated by the BBC in the past. David Attenborough aside, JB was the person most people wanted to meet - Marcus du Sautoy was particularly excited at the prospect.
By the way, the Royal Society never charge for public engagement events like this. They have a whole programme of speakers on a variety of topics. I'm going to see if I can rearrange my week to go along.
the man is a legend. So much so, that the good yeomen of Bristol have even named a street after him. Yes. Certainly. Johnny Ball Lane, Bristol BS2
Good chap! I wouldn't mind going along, I must say -
That's a relief - I was a bit perturbed by the thought that his popularity had dropped so low. Pleased to hear that's not the case!
I really miss the special children's talks at the Royal Society - I used to be glued to the set when they were on TV, and they were one of the main influences in my choice of science at school. The talks were always so logical.
RS Christmas Lectures - They're bound to be on YouTube, or something...
The Christmas Lectures are the Royal Institution, not the Royal Society. Another excellent group of science communicators though. We got to the RI quite regularly as they have friday evening discourses - a lecture of general science interest, black tie dress code, sherry in the library afterwards. All very good fun. You get to meet the most interesting people, especially if you go for dinner first.
The RI is being refurbished this year, so the events are being held elsewhere, but we're looking forward to it reopening. They still have Michael Faraday's desk in the lecture theatre and there's a museum downstairs with lots of his things in.
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