Polymath World Channel

MOLECULAR IMMUNOLOGY Dr Denis Alexander is the Emeritus Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund’s College , Cambridge. Dr Alexander was previously Chairman of the Molecular Immunology Programme and Head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signalling and Development at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge. Prior to that he was at the Imperial Cancer Rese...

PHILOSOPHY Dr Joshua Sijuwade is Teaching Fellow in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham. He gained a BA in Theology at London School of Theology, a Postgraduate certificate in Education from Kings College London, before doing his MA in Philosophy at Birmingham and his PhD at York. He was visiting lecturer at London School of Theology before taking his post at Birmingham. His res...

BIOCHEMISTRY Dr Keith Fox is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at Southampton University. After doing his degree, two masters degrees, and then PhD at Cambridge University he became a Research Fellow at Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge before moving to Southampton University. His research interests concern DNA structure and its recognition, and his scientific work has been publishe...

Polymath World # Episode 43 - Dr Helen Sharman ASTRONAUT Dr Helen Sharman CMG OBE is Britain's first ever astronaut. Flying to the space station Mir in 1991, she was selected from a large range of applicants to take part in the JUNO mission to the Russian space station where she spent a week performing science experiments, working on the crew rotation and fulfilling mission requirements before ret...

SHARKS Dr Kim Holland is Research Professor at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology.  Known as the 'Shark Lab', together with his team Dr Holland runs the sharks and predators research institute of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, located on Moku o Lo'e (Coconut Island), in Kane'ohe Bay on O'ahu. Holland's work specialises in the organi...

History of science and religion Dr Nick Spencer is the best-selling author of books such as "Magisteria", "The Political Samaritan" and "Playing God". After studying undergraduate and masters degrees in English at Oxford University, he did a 2nd masters degree in literature, before a PhD in political philosophy and theology at Cambridge.  He is Visiting Research Fellow at the Faiths and Civil Soci...

PHILOSOPHY Julian Baggini is an English philosopher, journalist and the author of over 20 books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is co-founder of The Philosophers' Magazine, and has written for numerous international newspapers and magazines. His best-selling books include The Edge Of Reason, How The World Thinks, How The World Eats, The Godless Gospel, and Atheism: A Very Short...

Oceanography: Filming whales Howard and Michelle Hall are diving and underwater photography royalty. Few people have brought the world of whales to us as much as they have. Some of the most incredible footage of blue, humpback and grey whales has been shot by them. Their work has greatly benefitted both science and environmental awareness over the past 35 years. I loved hearing their stories and a...

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND Dr Philip Goff is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Durham. He is one of the main thinkers behind panpsychism today and a proponent of this perspective on the role of mind and consciousness in the universe. He recently converted to what he calls a heretical form of Christianity which sees God as limited when it comes to the problem of evil. His recent book W...

ASTRONOMY AND HISTORY Dr Simon Mitton is a Fellow of 3 Royal Societies, a Life Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge University, and an incredible astronomer whose career has spanned one of the greatest eras of astrophysics. He is the biographer and former student of the legendary Sir Fred Hoyle and now is set to release the most comprehensive biography of Georges Lemaitre on the centenary of h...

GEOPHYSICS Professor Bob White is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Emeritus Professor of Geophysics at Cambridge University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1994, and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2016. In 2018 he was awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, which is their highest award, in recognition of a lifetime’s achievement in research. He is a...

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY How can we live on Mars? Dr Tiffany Vora is a synthetic biologist from Silicon Valley and a leading space scientist. A graduate in biology from New York University before doing her PhD at Princeton, she was present in the explosive booms of genomics, systems biology, computational biology and genetic engineering - and we will talk about all of them! She became Visiting Assistant...

SIMONE WEIL: Dr Chris Thomas and Dr Alex Carter Together with Dr Chris Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Dr Alex Carter from Cambridge University, we discuss the incredible thought, writings and legacy of the philosopher Simone Weil. A true treasure, she is perhaps the most underappreciated and best kept secret in philosophy. Someone whose life and wr...

ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS and THEOLOGY Dr Gillian Straine is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. A tremendous mind, she did a PhD in atmospheric physics at Imperial College London when she suffered from lymphatic cancer, undergoing a long and painful chemotherapy journey. Contracting cancer at such a young age was a significant blow and although she recovered, her journey of healing took...

PHILOSOPHY Dr Amna Whiston is a philosopher who specialises in moral philosophy and the philosophy of mind. She teaches at Oxford University and Cambridge University's continuing education. She also writes popularly for the Institute for Art and Ideas and has engaged in debates about consciousness and AI on platforms such as Unbelievable . I've loved engaging with Amna in the past year in public o...

PHILOSOPHY Dr Craig is a world renowned philosopher of religion and an authority on the discipline known as "apologetics". He authored the textbook we used as masters students and is one of the most famous philosophers of his generation. The architect of the Kalam Cosmological Argument, Dr Craig is a true polymath with doctorates in philosophy of religion from the University of Birmingham and a do...

PHARMACOLOGY AND SPACE SCIENCE Dr Julie Keeble is senior lecturer in pharmacology at Kings College London in the faculty of medicine and life sciences. She is part of the aerospace medicine and extreme physiology group at KCL. Dr Keeble has sent over 30 experiments to space in her role with ISSET as a chief scientist. Her role in sending student experiments to the ISS as part of the science resear...

THEORETICAL PHYSICS Conspiracy theories, science denial and inspiring wonder  Dr Lawrence Krauss is an award winning science communicator and author, theoretical physicist and cosmologist who founded the Origins Project. His work has featured all over the world in works by the likes of PBS and NOVA. His career has taken him through Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Case Western and Arizona S...

DNA repair in space Can we survive on Mars with the radiation? In October 2025 I had the honour of speaking at the University of Southern California for the 2025 Mars Society Conference. My lecture was on DNA double strand breaks due to space radiation and the immense challenges we face in keeping astronauts alive in deep space. Enjoy! The Polymath World Channel brings you interviews with extraord...

NASA Astronaut  The wonder of spacewalks  NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold has spent 210 says in space across his 2 missions. He has completed 5 spacewalks (EVAs) for over 32 hours. A former schoolteacher, marine biologist and accountant, Ricky became a NASA astronaut in the class of 2004. After completing a NEEMO mission undersea in Florida as well as a caves mission in Europe, he flew aboard Space Sh...

CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY And The Intelligent Design Trial 20 years later Dr Kenneth Miller is professor (emeritus) of biology at Brown University in the USA. He is a world authority on cell and molecular biology and an early pioneer in computational biology. His work has spanned the globe and made huge inroads in protein science. He has written biology textbooks used en masse in high schools and...

ASTROPHYSICS WHAT IS GALACTIC ARCHAEOLOGY? Dr Anke Arentsen-Ardern is an observational astronomer in the field of Galactic Archaeology at Cambridge's world famous Institute of Astronomy. She works on the formation and evolution of the ancient Milky Way and the properties of old stellar populations, using observations of old, metal-poor stars, typically utilising spectroscopy. Anke has been a Herch...

Political commentator Candace Owens believes dinosaurs never existed. Why? For what reason? What is there to gain from believing dinosaurs are a conspiracy? This is not healthy scepticism or critical thinking, but madness. Hating science and denying evidence never got anyone anywhere worth a damn. The Polymath World Channel brings you interviews with extraordinary researchers and academics working...

ESA ASTRONAUT I loved talking to the outstanding Dr Meganne Christian, astronaut reserve for the European Space Agency. Dr Meganne Christian is an ESA astronaut in reserve, appointed from the 2022 class. Meganne studied at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Engineering in industrial chemistry. In 2014 she received her PhD in industrial...

Something a bit different this week. This is another issue close to my heart and a conspiracy theory that is so problematic and disappointing. Candace Owens is a political commentator who doesn't believe we landed on the moon. I love Bill Maher and he has a lot of patience here and handles this pretty well. Her reasons are abysmal and it is tragic that she uses her huge platform to propagate such...