Published Resources Details
Resource Section
- Title
- The Science Show 25 years
- In
- The Slab
- Imprint
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2000
- Url
- https://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/scishow25/default.htm
- Abstract
Ian Lowe reflects on the The Science Show's powerful contribution to the Australian science community over the last quarter century and pays tribute to its founder and host Robyn Williams, an extraordinary science reporter in an extraordinary time for science.
The Science Show has moved steadily over the years from reporting science in an admiring tone to a critical scrutiny of science and where it is taking us. That process has given rise to a wide range of other programmes with a critical edge: the weekly scripted talks of Ockham's Razor, the environmental inquiries of the late Peter Hunt and his successors, The Health Report and so on. Even on television, a medium much less conducive to intelligent inquiry, Quantum in its heyday had a critical approach that set it apart from the simplistic sludge of commercial networks.
Technical advance has widened the accessibility of the work of the ABC Science Unit. When I first listened to The Science Show, I had a problem; its traditional Saturday afternoon time-slot is incompatible with my cricket playing! If I was unable to catch the Monday evening repeat, I missed that week's offering. Today, we can access it through the Web. Anyone who can read this short essay has access to a wide range of science-related material. ABC science is now a part of JJJ, Science in the Pub, The Lab and so on. Science is no longer an ephemeral burst of electromagnetic radiation from ABC transmitters, there is an enduring record in cyber-space. So The Science Show is now part of the public record, a valuable resource for students and the general public. It's a long way from those dusty Forbes Street studios to Cyber-Space. Happy Birthday, Science Show!