Martin Rees - Science as a calling

What has been learnt about the universe in the last 50 years will be one of the real high points, along with discoveries like the double helix and genetics, and Darwin and evolution.

About Martin Rees

"I'm the UK's Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.

My research is mainly on trying to understand our universe around us. Aside from astronomy and space science, I’ve been very much engaged with science policy, particularly how modern technology can be controlled so that we can harness its benefits but avoid its downsides."

Key Points

• Science involves piecemeal efforts and the international collaboration of many people to understand what’s happening in a particular area of the natural world. • Scientists have a responsibility to realise when their work may have a dangerous downside and guard against its use. • Many decisions made by politicians today have a scientific element, so in order to have democratic debates, it’s important that all citizens have a feel for science and statistics.

Part of a historical debate

I’ve been a scientist specialising in a field that has developed very fast, so although I don’t feel I’ve made any great individual contributions, I’ve been part of a debate which has really deepened and broadened our understanding of the universe we live in. I think when the history of science is written, what has been learnt about the universe in the last 50 years will be one of the real high points, along with discoveries like the double helix and genetics, and Darwin and evolution.

I’ve been privileged to be part of this debate, which, of course, is an international debate, because science is an activity which straddles boundaries of nationality and faith more easily than other activities. I’ve been privileged to be part of this international community trying to understand the world and the universe. I’ve done this in a university, but I’ve had the privilege of working with younger colleagues and colleagues all over the world. In astronomy, like in particle physics, we sometimes depend on very expensive pieces of equipment which have to be shared internationally, so that makes our subject especially international. For me, that’s been a bonus.

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