''Material World'' was a weekly science magazine programme on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

broadcast on a Thursday afternoon. The programme's regular presenter was

Quentin Cooper Quentin Cooper (born 1961, Grimsby) is a science journalist and facilitator, who presented BBC Radio 4's '' Material World'' from 2000 to 2013. He speaks at science festivals and lectures, and works regularly with science and educational organ ...

, with contributions from scientists researching areas under discussion in each programme.

History

The programme began as ''The Material World'' in April 1998. It was presented by

Trevor Phillips Sir Mark Trevor Phillips (born 31 December 1953) is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician who served as Chair of the London Assembly from 2000 to 2001 and from 2002 to 2003. He presented '' Trevor Phillips on Sunday'', a Sunday ...

, a chemistry graduate of

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. In September 2000 Phillips was told that he could no longer work at the BBC due to his close links with the Labour Party, which broke BBC rules of impartiality. He was one of the few regular black broadcasters on Radio 4. The programme was presented by Quentin Cooper from 2000 to its end in 2013. Material World was one of the BBC's main conduits for up-to-date scientific news, along with ''

Frontiers Frontiers may refer to: * Frontier, areas near or beyond a boundary Arts and entertainment Music * ''Frontiers'' (Journey album), 1983 * ''Frontiers'' (Jermaine Jackson album), 1978 * ''Frontiers'' (Jesse Cook album), 2007 * ''Frontiers'' ( ...

'', '' Science in Action'', and '' Bang Goes the Theory''. From 5 April 2010 the programme was repeated on a Monday evening at 21.00, in the former slot of ''

Costing the Earth ''Costing the Earth'' is a factual programme on BBC Radio 4 about the environment. The show has been broadcast since 2007 and is also available to download as a podcast. The programme is produced by the Radio 4 team based in Bristol. Presenter ...

''. For a short time, when programmes on 5 Live began webstreaming with video, ''Material World'' was also

webcast A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

. On 14 June 2013 it was announced that the show was to be cancelled, to be replaced by a new show, ''

Inside Science ''Inside Science'' is a science programme broadcast on BBC Radio Four. It is normally broadcast from 4:30 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, and is repeated 9 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. It is normally presented by Adam Rutherford, but may occasionally be ...

''. The last programme presented by Quentin Cooper was broadcast on 20 June 2013 with the final episode airing a week later on 27 June 2013, presented by Gareth Mitchell.

Structure

A typical episode programme covered three or four topics, giving each 7–10 minutes. For many years the programme was divided into two sections of fifteen minutes on separate topics. It took the form of interviewing a guest scientist or engineer. Cooper often ended the programme with a terrible scientific

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

. Many past programmes are available for online listening via the programme's website. Some sequential sets of programmes were made in collaboration with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

References

{{reflist

External links

BBC Radio 4's Material World official site

BBC Radio 4's Material World Archive page

Co-operation with the Open University

So You Want To Be A Scientist?
BBC Radio 4 programmes Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom Science podcasts Science in society 1998 radio programme debuts Science and technology in the United Kingdom Open University Science radio programmes

History

Structure

See also

References

External links