Royal Society's President Has His Say. (March 8, 2006)

President of the Royal Society, Martin Rees

    Professor Martin Rees - Astronomer Royal, Cambridge cosmologist and since the end of 2005 when he took over from Robert May, President of the Royal Society of London, spoke with the BBC's Rebecca Morelle  last week and had a fair bit to say.

Some excerpts:

How would you describe the current state of science in the UK?

I think our standing is very high - we have traditionally been very strong in research and we still punch above our weight. But I think we have to realise that this status will be in jeopardy if we don't ensure that science is well supported and a sufficient fraction of our young people chose to study science and are well educated in science.

 

Are you worried about the fall in numbers of students taking up some areas of science, such as maths and the physical sciences?

One of the main concerns I have is that a lot of very bright people are turned off science at the age of 16, perhaps because they haven't been inspiringly taught in the subject. And under our present system, if they drop science at 16 that forecloses the option of studying it at university level. However, I think one shouldn't be too despairing: overall this government has done a number of things to raise the profile of the teaching profession and raise its status.

 

At the moment, climate change seems to be entwined with nuclear energy - where do you stand on this?

I think the Royal Society would collectively make the point that it's difficult to see how we could meet our targets beyond Kyoto in the UK without nuclear power. I think that's a statement that is pretty uncontroversial. My personal view is that we should replace the existing nuclear power stations in the UK with a new generation of nuclear power. I believe that because of the importance of promoting the Kyoto targets, but also for reasons of diversity of energy security and supplies.

 

When controversial issues like these emerge, what would you say is the public-facing role of the Royal Society?

I think that when there are issues that are primarily of a scientific kind we should make our views very clear, very promptly, and there are a number of topics where we perhaps ought to try to lead public and political opinion. There is more a feeling that it is a responsibility of scientists to engage with the public, and we regard this as part of our role.