Jim Al-Khalili

Well, Lucy, we mentioned the Montreal Protocol earlier. The global treaty first agreed in 1987, where countries committed to phase out chemicals like CFCs to protect and restore the ozone layer. Now, that protocol is regularly updated based on the latest scientific assessments. And you were first invited to be a reviewer back in 2010. By 2023, you were co-chairing the protocol's scientific assessment panel. Now, without getting too much into the nitty gritty...

Just last year you presented the panel's findings at the 37th meeting of the parties, as it's called, in Nairobi. What did you tell the assembled world representatives there? Well, first of all, the scientific assessments are made every four years. The latest one will be this year, so we're in that phase of the assessment.

Are you optimistic then that those in power will make changes for the better?

Now, you know better than most what a battle it can be getting scientific research to feed into really positive global action. Any advice for budding scientists who are feeling a little overwhelmed by just how much we need to do to fix our atmosphere?

And if they find the whole scientific endeavour rather stressful and challenging, perhaps they should consider taking up a really challenging sport alongside their research. A bit like us, to let off steam. Absolutely, it's very helpful for that, I guarantee it. Lucy Carpenter, thank you very much for sharing a life scientific. Thank you, Jim, it's been a pleasure.

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Last summer, filming began on a movie that promises to tell perhaps the greatest story of all time.

But it's a movie with a difference.

There's no director, no script, and it won't be on at your local cinema.

This is the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, and it's one of the most ambitious projects in the world of astronomy, with a mission to create a decade-long time-lapse movie of the visible universe.

to answer fundamental questions about its origin, evolution and ultimately its fate.

My guest today is playing a starring role.

Hiranya Pieris is Professor of Astrophysics 1909, the prestigious chair at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University.

Over her career, she's been one of the pioneers of a revolution in astronomy, bridging fundamental physics with the observational data coming back from space to transform the field from the wild west of physics to the modern era of precision cosmology.

And ever keen to inspire women to take up careers in science, if this interview were a live show, she'd have reserved the front row for schoolgirls.

Professor Hiranya Pierre is welcome to The Life Scientific.

Now, I mentioned that passion you have to inspire schoolgirls to take up science.

Where does that come from?

And for you as a young girl, you're developing this love for science, being part of the scientific enterprise.