Voices of Science: launch of new British Library website
16 December 2013
Voices of Science: the lives of British scientists recorded in full for the first time in a new British Library oral history archive.
A major oral history project to gather the life stories of British scientists has culminated today in the launch of a new online archive by the British Library. 'Voices of Science' at www.bl.uk/voices-of-science, is drawn from a National Life Stories programme 'An Oral History of British Science', and features interviews with over 100 leading UK scientists and engineers, telling the stories of some of the most remarkable scientific and engineering discoveries of the past century as well as the personal stories of each individual.
Remarkably few scientists have previously been interviewed at length about their life and work, and this archive remedies that absence while preserving their memories for posterity to be used by researchers now and in the future.
With interviews ranging across multiple disciplines, the archive seeks to represent a full cross-section of scientific activity, including lesser-heard voices as well as key players in the British scientific landscape over the last century. Initially the project has focussed on computing, aerospace, materials, and the earth sciences, and if funds are raised, expects to continue to add to the collection in the coming years.
Over 1000 hours of unedited interviews, each lasting 10-15 hours are being made available in full on the British Library's Sounds website (http://sounds.bl.uk), while the 'Voices of Science' site offers curated access to audio and video highlights from the interviews, as well as photographs, biographies and other contextual information. The project has been generously supported by the Arcadia Fund.
Examples from the archive include:
* Joseph Farman telling the story of finding the 'hole' in the ozone layer using an instrument in a hut in Antarctica
* Janet Thomson on how she became the first female scientist allowed to Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey, in 1983
* Dan McKenzie recalling his realisation that the Earth's crust is made up of moving rigid plates (plate tectonics)
* Geoff Tootill, last survivor of the team that built the world's first modern computer, the 1948 Manchester 'Baby', remembers how they thought the whole world would only need a few computers
* Mary Lee Berners-Lee recalls the importance of sellotape to programming some of the first computers
* Professor Sir Colin Humphreys explaining how he has used his scientific mindset to investigate the events of the Bible
The Voices of Science website can be found online at www.bl.uk/voices-of-science.
Rob Perks
Lead Curator, Oral History
The British Library
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