Tables turned

It was odd listening to Jim Al-Khalili being interviewed on Radio 4 on Tuesday morning rather than the other way round. In his series The Life Scientific, Al-Khalili has developed his own brand of interviewing, encouraging his guests to talk about their work in science by leading them from personal biography —how they came to study science, what they were like at school, who influenced them — to the intricacies of their research and why we should know about it. He makes this sound so easy and natural, setting his interviewees at ease, and his listeners, too, with stories from school and university before delving into the complex ideas behind their work. Very often, it turns out, the route to achievement in science is not necessarily dependent on initial aptitude, or rational explanation, but owes much to serendipity and always a good deal of determination.

Odder still on Tuesday’s edition (produced by Anna Buckley), we could hear an audience laughing and applauding and punctuating the conversation as Al-Khalili faced his inquisitor, Adam Rutherford (his science colleague on Radio 4).