Robin Williams

And what's that, Professor?

I'm Robin Williams.

And I'm Belinda Smith.

And yes, you need the heart to make it work.

Ian Chubb quoting a minister, after the stats, the publications and the prizes, why does it matter?

It's the heart.

David Attenborough knows this, and I suspect so do you, Belinda Smith.

Am I right?

Emotion.

Yes, commitment, joy in nature.

And we'll give a nod to David's magnificent birthday in today's science show, but the main tribute to him is in the complete special I produced, which is there online lasting a full hour.

Do listen.

Here, for instance, he is reflecting on his own museum that he put together when young.

I had a small museum as a boy.

Many boys do.

Mine contained a Victorian bun penny, the shed skin of a grass snake, some fossil ammonites, a twisted piece of metal from an incendiary bomb that had been dropped on Leicester where I lived,

for this was during the war, and a small brown object two and a quarter inches long.

I can be quite precise about its measurements because I still have it.

It's roughly rectangular with curved ribbed contours that have been beautifully polished.

It's not cold like stone, but warm to the touch.