Royal Institute Christmas Lectures

Yes watched it last night, very interesting and informative.

Watching it tomorrow. Always enjoyed these lectures and this one will be interesting with Jonathan Van-Tam.

Yes I've just watched the second one. Very interesting watching them run the epidemics and I love JVT. I hope the children realise how lucky they are to have such distinguished people taking the time to inform them.

I went to one of the lectures in 1962 but have no idea now what it was about. I've a feeling that child brides came into it somehow - we were rather shocked!

Yes, really enjoying them. I was hoping for a good explanation of how marks can stop viruses even though they are small enough to easily pass through, and I wasn't disappointed!

I'm going to break ranks, I'm afraid.

I can't tell you how sorry I am that Van Tam is doing the lectures this year. Lecturers in the past have included Faraday, Bragg, Longair, Dawkins, Sagan... proper scientists at the top of their game. No disrespect to Van Tam, but he's a medic, not a scientist and nowhere near as eminent as some of his predecessors for the Christmas Lectures.

It seems to me to be the start of the politicisation of science in this country. If they'd had Prof Gilbert I'd have been much happier.

Ive had enough of the virus. I really couldn't watch this. The only thing I do watch is FM's broadcasts or Prof Whitty if he is on. Glad folks found this interesting though. Each to their own.

Alegrias1 Looking at JVT's history I would hardly describe him as just "a medic". When it comes to Covid I would have thought there were few people better qualified to talk about it. Professor Gilbert would be interesting to hear but he has had two of the Oxford team with him to fill in some of the "science" bit.

I'm not sure how educating children about what viruses are, how they spread and how best to protect ourselves against them is politicising science?

JVTis a good communicator. I suppose it is a bit second rate having somebody from lowly old Nottingham University

He is a medic, he hasn't done work to the standard of any of the scientists I mentioned. I'm not saying he doesn't know his stuff, but I don't think he's the right choice for The Christmas Lectures.

The Christmas Lectures are meant to be about science, not to have the science bit "filled in".

It's politicised because they have someone giving the lectures who is a government employee and advisor, not an independent voice.

So what has he said in the lectures that is incorrect?

Well I could stand there and say things that are correct, but it wouldn't mean I was the right choice for giving the lectures.

Being a 'government employee' doesn't mean you don't have an independent voice. Many scientists are 'government employees', and they also advise governments, as you would expect.
The RI lectures are about explaining science to young people (and the general public). I usually watch them and enjoy them. I think this one especially good.

I know that there is a debate as to whether medicine and allied subjects are 'sciences', but I regard that as an academic issue. Personally, whilst I recognise the place of pure science, to me the main purpose is to apply it, and mostly the Christmas lectures are about that.

I found it informative but a bit gimmicky. I do like and respect JVT but don’t think he’s a great orator.

Nannarose

Being a 'government employee' doesn't mean you don't have an independent voice. Many scientists are 'government employees', and they also advise governments, as you would expect.
The RI lectures are about explaining science to young people (and the general public). I usually watch them and enjoy them. I think this one especially good.

I know that there is a debate as to whether medicine and allied subjects are 'sciences', but I regard that as an academic issue. Personally, whilst I recognise the place of pure science, to me the main purpose is to apply it, and mostly the Christmas lectures are about that.

We'll need to agree to differ then. About just about everything you've written.

.. Well I still think JVT was a very good choice. He is a popular figure that the children will probably know and had an impressive array of scientists appearing with him.

My daughter is a world authority in her field but I'm not sure I'd inflict her on a group of teenagers. Very knowledgeable but rather lacking the common touch I'm afraid - takes after her mother.

JVT may not be a scientist in the same way as past speakers at the Christmas Lectures have been (some of those lectures have been very dry although most have been well presented), but he is a popular, well-known and trusted figure providing relevant information to young people at this time.

Don't you mean Sir JVT?

Ha! Yep, certainly do!

Well I enjoyed the lectures. They are aimed at young people, not at scientists.
I felt I had learnt a lot in a way that was easily understood. Isn’t that the point?

No, sorry, they're not aimed at young people. They are aimed at a general audience. But everyone seems to think that the only way to make science interesting to people is to dumb it down and have things that go whoosh. For instance, ripping off your shirt in a cloud of smoke at the start of the lectures and setting fire to a map of the world .

Alegrias we are not all scientists. I can’t agree that JVT is ‘just a medic’. He’s a clever man and an excellent communicator, which some of the most eminent academics are not. Anything which can make a complex subject more easily understood and perhaps attract more young people into the field of science is surely to be welcomed.

I never said JVC was just a medic, although some have imputed that phrase to me, presumably in an effort to discredit my argument.

The Christmas Lectures have usually been delivered by world class scientists who are good communicators.

Prof Van Tam is no doubt a clever man, but he's no Carl Sagan.

I think you’re being a bit ‘science snobby’ here Alegrias and I don’t mean that by way of criticism because I’m very ‘lawyer snobby’ and I admit to looking down my nose at many. However I think that given the topic and the timing JVT was a good choice and as I’ve said it’s an opportunity to make science appeal to a wider audience. I read an interview recently in which he confessed he was astonished to be asked to deliver the lectures. A humble man.

I think I am GSM. I long for the days of Sagan and Longair. I haven't watched the Lectures for several years. Too blooming "whoosh bang" for me now.