The Reith Lectures

This year's Reith Lecturer is Onora O'Neill. She became Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, in l992 and has chaired the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission. She is currently chair of the Nuffield Foundation and she has been President of the Aristotelian Society, and a member of the Animal Procedures (Scientific) Committee. In 1999 she was made a life peer as Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, and sits as a crossbencher. She has written widely on political philosophy and ethics, international justice, bioethics and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

In the first of her Reith Lectures, philosopher Onora O'Neill examines the nature of trust, its role in society, and asks if there is real evidence of a crisis of trust.

Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents his final of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.

In this lecture, Professor Kirkwood challenges science and society to look afresh at what is happening in our world, to recognise the opportunities, as well as the threats to future stability, that stem from the revolution in longevity. We know where we've come from and why, he argues, but we don't have a clear plan of where to go now. The longevity revolution has reached a turning-point and the decisions we take in the next few years will have far-reaching consequences for the state of future society

Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents the fourth of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.

In this lecture, recorded at Berryhill retirement village, near Stoke-on-Trent, Professor Kirkwood discusses making choices in ageing. He argues that the freedom to make, and continue making choices is perhaps the greatest single index of well-being. Choice matters in ageing for two very powerful reasons. First, although many fruits of the scientific revolution lie in the future, scientific understanding of the ageing process tells us already that there is a great deal we can do now by making the right choices. Second, as we get older, choice often seems to be taken away, however the revolution in longevity puts choice high up the list of priorities. Professor Kirkwood argues that we need to recognise that when we make choices about initiatives to meet the challenge of an older population, it is not 'them and us' we are dealing with, but 'us and us', and that we should be more robust in confronting the reality of our longer lives.

Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents the third of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.

In this lecture Professor Kirkwood tackles the subject of sex. Does sex shorten our lives? Can it be, as some have suggested, that ageing and death are the price we pay for sex? Does it make sense to think in terms of a 'reproductive duty' to the species, leaving us surplus to requirement when duty is done? And what, if these worrying notions are true, are we to make of the post-menopausal woman? These are the questions he examines; revealing that the answers are not only reassuring, (on the whole), but also, that they tell us a great deal about the biological background to our revolution in longevity.

Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents his second of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.

In this lecture he looks at a revolution in the life sciences; a revolution that has unfolded with breathtaking speed over the last half century and which has accelerated greatly of late. It is this revolution, he argues, that will allow us to understand the role of DNA in the ageing process.

We sometimes say, in extremis, that a person's life hangs by a thread. In fact, all our lives hang by a thread all the time. The thread in question is DNA, the medium through which we inherit our genetic destiny. DNA directs our growth and all of the vital processes on which we depend for survival. DNA is the thread of life, but is it also the thread of death? Does DNA control our end as it controls our beginning?

Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents the first of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.

In his first lecture, recorded at the Royal Institution, Professor Kirkwood explores the revolution in human longevity. Science, he says, has new things to tell us about the process of ageing. We know now that ageing is neither inevitable nor necessary. We now understand that our cells are not programmed with some unavoidable sell-by date; we are not programmed to die.

To mark the new millennium, this year's Reith Lectures are delivered by five different thinkers, each eminent in a different field. At the end of the run, the Prince of Wales presents his own views on the topic in a roundtable discussion with all five lecturers.

The Millennium Reith Lectures deal with one of the most pressing issues of our time - sustainable development. The fifth lecture, delivered from Delhi, is by the Founder Director of the New Delhi Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, Dr Vandana Shiva.

Dr Vandana Shiva, who is the founder of Navdanya, a national movement promoting diversity and use of native seeds, examines Poverty and Globalisation, and talks about the recognition and legitimisation of authority in society. She believes that we are wrong to be smug about the new global economy and that thinking about the impact of globalisation on the lives of ordinary people is vital to achieving sustainability. world systems should move away from ones based on fear and scarcity, monocultures and monopolies, and appropriation and dispossession.

To mark the new millennium, this year's Reith Lectures are delivered by five different thinkers, each eminent in a different field. At the end of the run, the Prince of Wales presents his own views on the topic in a roundtable discussion with all five lecturers.

The Millennium Reith Lectures deal with one of the most pressing issues of our time - sustainable development. The fourth lecture, delivered from Geneva, is by the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland is a qualified medical doctor specialising in child and public health. She is also former Minister of the Environment and Prime Minister of Norway. In her lecture on Health and Population, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland raises issues about accepting and carrying out sustainable behaviour. She believes that issues of women, poverty, education and population are intrinsically linked, and that health should be seen as part of our investment in developing countries, rather than a dividend to be reaped later.

To mark the new millennium, this year's Reith Lectures are delivered by five different thinkers, each eminent in a different field. At the end of the run, the Prince of Wales presents his own views on the topic in a roundtable discussion with all five lecturers.

The Millennium Reith Lectures deal with one of the most pressing issues of our time - sustainable development. The third lecture is by Sir John Browne.

Sir John Browne is Chief Executive Officer of BP Amoco, Britain's largest company and the third largest oil corporation in the world. He is also a trustee of the British Museum and chairman of Stanford Business School's Advisory Council.

Speaking from Edinburgh, Sir John Browne's lecture examines business. He raises issues of stewardship and responsible management, and demonstrates how governments, industry, economy and individuals interact and interconnect in a dynamic fashion. He believes that business plays a fundamental role in delivering sustainable development through the principle of enlightened self-interest, and argues that technology is the key to tackling the growing threat of climate change without undermining economic growth.

To mark the new millennium, this year's Reith Lectures are delivered by five different thinkers, each eminent in a different field. At the end of the run, the Prince of Wales presents his own views on the topic in a roundtable discussion with all five lecturers.

The Millennium Reith Lectures deal with one of the most pressing issues of our time - sustainable development. The second lecture, delivered from Los Angeles is by Tom Lovejoy.

Tom Lovejoy is Chief Biodiversity Advisor for the World Bank and Counsellor at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. He is a former member of the White House Science Council and UN Environment Programme, and is a specialist in environmental biology of the tropics and Latin American region.

In his lecture about biodiversity, Tom Lovejoy raises issues about our treatment of creation and our status within it. He believes that biodiversity is the best single indicator of an area's long term biological and economic health.