Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1990, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is a scientist, born 69 years ago, the son of a Yorkshire builder, he went via a

scholarship to his local grammar school to Leeds University and wartime service

in the Navy. Here in the long watches of the night he made up his mind that what he wanted to do with

his life was pure scientific research. That decision gave the world an important discovery

and its author great honor. In

1967 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the discovery of

flash photolysis, the means of recording chemical changes in tiny fragments of time. But far from being a remote

Bofin, this is a man who wants the world to share his love of science and its

wonders. He is the President of the Royal Society, Professor Sir George Porter.

Sir George, is that a love and wonder which continues, which you go on experiencing, even

after more than 50 years in the business as it were.

Oh, certainly.

It hasn't diminished at all.

Your lectures have, I think, been renowned almost as much for their theatricality,

the flashes and the bangs as for their learning.

Patently you enjoy that side of your work.

I hope there's a little learning as well.

Yes, I do.

Of course, I'm fortunate in that I work with flashes and bangs.

Chemistry is a marvelous subject from that point of view and

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