Fifty Years of Science in Action

Science in Action has surpassed 50 years of broadcasting the latest developments in science, technology and medicine from around the world.

To celebrate this momentous occasion we are broadcasting from the Royal Society in London, one of the most prestigious and well-known science institutions in the world. Joining presenter Jack Stewart is a panel of distinguished guests: Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist and president of the Royal Society. He is also the director and chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, a brand new medical research centre opening in London in 2015.

He is joined by eminent virologist, professor Wendy Barclay, chair in Influenza Virology at Imperial College, London. Also on the panel is Nasa's chief scientist Dr Ellen Stofan, principal adviser to Nasa administrator Charles Bolden, on the agency's science programmes and science-related strategic planning and investments. She has worked on its Cassini Mission to Saturn, the Mars Express Mission’s MARSIS sounder and was principal investigator on the Titan Mare Explorer.

With expertise that spans from the miniscule gene to the vast expanse of outer space, Paul, Wendy and Ellen cast back on half a century of science and discuss what it has achieved and what the next 50 years of science, technology and medicine may hold.

Picture from left to right: Jack Stewart, Dr Ellen Stofan, Sir Paul Nurse and Professor Wendy Barclay