This year's Reith Lecturer is the distinguished engineer, Lord Broers. He is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.

In his third Reith lecture Lord Broers argues that profound changes have taken place in the development of ideas and their translation in to the market place. This innovation revolution demands a new approach to research and product development.

Some argue that technology threatens our way of life and must be controlled through regulation, however, Lord Broers believes that this is rarely necessary. He argues that it is better to allow the market - and the customers - to decide whether technologies succeed or not.