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Scientific broadcasting as a social responsibility? John Maynard Smith on radio and television in the 1960s and 1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2020

HELEN PIEL
HELEN PIEL*
Affiliation:
The School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

John Maynard Smith (1920–2004) was one of Britain's most eminent evolutionary biologists. For over forty years, from 1954 onwards, he also regularly appeared on radio and television. He primarily acted as a scientific expert on biology, but in the late 1960s and the 1970s he often spoke on the implications of science (biology and more generally) for society. Through four case studies, this paper analyses Maynard Smith's scientific broadcasting against developments within the BBC as well as the relation between science and society in Britain. It finds that while Maynard Smith acknowledged and accepted increasing mediation through the BBC and its producers, he stayed publicly and privately critical of both format and content decisions in his reflections on the science–media relationship. At the same time, we find that over a decade before the 1985 report by the Royal Society on the public understanding of science, Maynard Smith came to think of engagement with the public via the media as scientists’ responsibility.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 89 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2020

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Greg Radick, Charlotte Sleigh, Amanda Rees and the reviewers for their help and comments on this paper. Other stimulating thoughts came from audience members at the BSHS Postgraduate Conference in Manchester 2018. Many thanks also go to Jonathan Pledge, curator at the British Library, and Kate O'Brien, archivist at the BBC Written Archives Centre.

References

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33 This approximation is based on the listings in the BBC Genome project (http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk), a record of the Radio Times from 1923 to 2009. The number may be slightly inflated, although I have tried to unpick all the repeats from the original broadcasts.

34 JMSA Add MS 86765 contains several letters of viewers congratulating Maynard Smith on programmes, and showing genuine interest in the content by asking questions.

35 Paul Ferris, ‘Sound waves: keeping science pure’, The Observer, 22 March 1964, p. 23.

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37 BBC WAC RCONT1, John Maynard Smith Contributor File I; and RCONT12, John Maynard Smith Contributor File II.

38 JMSA Add MS 86831.

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43 John Maynard Smith to Mick Rhodes, 2 November 1965, JMSA Add MS 86765.

44 Mick Rhodes to John Maynard Smith, 27 October 1965, JMSA Add MS 86765.

45 These appear to be, from the titles and brief descriptions in the Radio Times: ‘Mules, maize and mongrels’ (1954), the ‘Looking alike’ three-part series (1960), ‘Jigsaws and penny-whistles’ (1963), ‘Information’ (1964), ‘DNA and evolution’ (1967), and the outlier, ‘Cheese’ (1997) – which appears to have discussed bacteria. ‘Scientific knowledge and the way to find it’ and ‘The scientific interpretation of evidence’, two of his three talks for the Christianity and the Natural Sciences series (1965), were concerned with scientific methods. Cf. JMSA Add MS 86606.

46 The article discussed the feasibility and desirability of eugenics. The science is discussed only insofar as it is necessary to understand the larger arguments around what applied eugenics might mean for human society, whether or not it would be ‘worth bothering’ and what biologists should do about it.

47 John Maynard Smith, Robert McKenzie and Erskine Childers (interviewers), ‘Talking of things to come’, The Listener (1966) 1924. ‘Horizon: pesticides and prosperity [sic]’, Radio Times (1964) 2116, p. 13.

48 Mick Rhodes to John Maynard Smith, 3 March 1967, JMSA Add MS 86765.

49 Cf. Radio Times (1967) 2260, p. 38; 2261, p. 42; 2262, p. 50 and 2263, p. 50.

50 Maynard Smith, op. cit. (30), p. 28, original emphasis.

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53 Keller, op. cit. (9), p. 236.

54 Keller, op. cit. (9), p. 239.

55 Leach 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, p. 7, JMSA Add MS 86765.

56 Kendrew 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, p. 8, JMSA Add MS 86765.

57 Kendrew 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, p. 11, JMSA Add MS 86765.

58 Thorpe and Leach 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, pp. 12 f, JMSA Add MS 86765.

59 Leach 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, p. 8, JMSA Add MS 86765.

60 Maynard Smith 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, pp. 8 f, JMSA Add MS 86765.

61 Maynard Smith 1967, ‘Avoiding Action’, p. 9, JMSA Add MS 86765.

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64 Mick Rhodes to John Maynard Smith, 3 February 1967, JMSA Add Ms 86765.

65 John Maynard Smith to Mick Rhodes, 6 February 1967, JMSA Add MS 86765.

66 John Maynard Smith to Mick Rhodes, 22 September 1967, JMSA Add MS 86765.

67 Radio Times (1967) 2292, p. 38.

68 Maynard Smith, ‘The conscience of the scientist’ script, BBC WAC TLN 21 TC 1612. The broadcast, based on a speech (see below), has been published in The Listener; cf. Smith, John Maynard, ‘The conscience of the scientist’, The Listener (1969) 2106, pp. 178–180Google Scholar. It was so successful that it was repeated, the producer informed Maynard Smith in his thank-you letter. Laurie John to John Maynard Smith, 22 July 1969, BBC WAC RCONT12, John Maynard Smith Contributor File III.

69 Maynard Smith, The Listener, op. cit. (68), p. 178.

70 Maynard Smith, The Listener, op. cit. (68), p. 179.

71 Maynard Smith, The Listener, op. cit. (68), p. 180.

72 Maynard Smith, The Listener, op. cit. (68), p. 180.

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85 Bell, op. cit. (73), p. 152. Among the original letters of support were also several Nobel laureates, a majority of FRSs, a lord and a DBE, as well as OBEs.

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90 Cited in Bell, op. cit. (73), p. 166.

91 Cited in Bell, op. cit. (73), pp. 165 f.

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97 Boon, ‘Programmes of real cultural significance’, op. cit. (7), pp. 327 f.

98 Gerald Leach, ‘Notes on Horizon policy’, attached to Leach to Daly, 9 January 1964, T14/2, 195/1, cited in Boon, ‘Programmes of real cultural significance’, op. cit. (7), p. 330, Leach's emphasis.

99 Boon, ‘The televising of science’, op. cit. (7), p. 103. Ramsay Short, ‘Reason for calling the meeting’, 7 January 1964, T14/3,316/1, cited in Boon, ‘The televising of science’, op. cit. (7), p. 102.

100 Boon, ‘Programmes of real cultural significance’, op. cit. (7), p. 331.

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104 Radio Times (1966) 2225, p. 15.

105 BBC WAC T63/74/1 First Ten Years, and T63/109/1 Selfish Gene, JMSA Add MS 86765.

106 Peter Jones to John Maynard Smith, 31 December 1974, JMSA Add MS 86765.

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114 John Maynard Smith to Peter Jones, 6 January 1975, JMSA Add MS 86765.

115 John Maynard Smith to Peter Jones, 10 February 1975, JMSA Add MS 86765.

116 Singer, op. cit. (24), p. 744.

117 Boon, ‘British science documentaries’, op. cit. (7), p. 477.

118 Peter Jones to John Maynard Smith, 28 January 1975, JMSA Add MS 86765.

119 Van Dijck, op. cit. (28), p. 14.

120 Corner, John, The Art of Record: A Critical Introduction to Documentary, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996Google Scholar, referenced in Gouyon, Jean-Baptiste, ‘Science and film-making’, Public Understanding of Science (2016) 25, pp. 17–30, p. 18CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

121 Van Dijck, op. cit. (28), p. 10. Maynard Smith saw potential dangers in the voice-over as a method of presentation as well. He feared that it rendered scientists invisible as people. Cf. Maynard Smith, op. cit. (30), p. 26; and T. Beardsley, ‘Scientists to be seen and heard’, Nature (1983) 305, p. 6.

122 Morley, op. cit. (8), p. 89.

123 Morley, op. cit. (8), p. 98.

124 Merchant, op. cit. (10), p. 377.