Ian Sample

speaker

2,123 appearances 29 recordings 3 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 3d ago

Ian Sample’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 29 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 8.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Science Weekly · Four types of thinker, the cyclosporiasis outbreak, and the UK’s biggest telescope threatened · 6 Aug 2026 podcast

They have essentially overspent in the past and they've been hit by electricity costs rising. matched

They run a lot of the UK facilities. matched

And when electricity prices go up, their bills really are horrendous. matched

Staff costs have gone up. matched

So basically science, in the UK at least, is having its own cost of living crisis. matched

And so SGFC now has to find a lot of money before 2030 just to balance the books. matched

And we're talking hundreds of millions of pounds. matched

And loads of other telescopes and other areas of physics have been hit as well. matched

But Jodrell Bank is probably the most iconic one, the one that a lot of people will know about. matched

And it's been hit because the funding is being pulled for what's called eMerlin. matched

eMerlin is this network of seven radio telescopes in the UK, of which the Lovell Telescope is one. matched

And I spoke to the associate director at Jodrell Bank, and he said, basically, if you pull the money for eMerlin, you pull the rug out from underneath Jodrell Bank. matched

And so it is existential for them. matched

Now, you know, there are hopes to find other ways to fund it, which they're being required to do, but we don't know how well that will go yet. matched

You're right. matched

I mean, the UKRI budget is about 10 billion, but they don't have the money they need to run the facilities and to fund the commitments that they've already made. matched

Now, there's also some reprioritisation. matched

So the government is looking at... matched

trying to move government funding to areas like quantum computing and AI and things like that, and sensibly trying to find big growth areas that are going to feed into our economy in the sort of medium term. matched

But you have to think about this fundamental science that is done. matched

Showing 961–980 of 2,123 · page 49 of 107