As a science writer, I'm always trying to find ways to make science more approachable. When I recently interviewed teacher and science communicator Alom Shaha, he suggested that being brought up in a family and with teachers who had a positive attitude to science - and who considered it fun, not a chore - had a significant impact. Inevitably this means that the old C. P. Snow 'two cultures' thing rears its head. I brought the two cultures into an article for the Royal Literary Fund on why I thought science fiction is considered not to be in the first rank of writing by many of those in the literary world. And it was writing this that inspired me to attempt to use a touch of science fiction as a bridge to make popular science more approachable in my latest book, Interstellar Tours . This is a book on the science of what's in our galaxy, from black holes and supernovae to planets and nebulae. There have been plenty of such books, but often they feel rather detached from...

In recent edition of the Red Box podcast, the guests were asked which political interviewer they would like to grill them. Some ummed and ahhed for a while: I'm not involved with politics, but wouldn't have to hesitate a moment as it's already happened. I was interviewed a while ago by one of the UK's top political interviewers (now retired), John Humphrys on the Today programme. You can hear the interview here . I was in a different BBC studio from the interviewer when the interview took place, so I couldn't see who was about to interview me, and they didn't tell me in advance which of the Today programme presenters was going to speak to me. I must admit, if I'd known in advance it was going to be Humphrys I would probably have been more nervous than I actually was. But I'm so glad I did have that opportunity.  Nearly ten years ago I was on Christmas University Challenge, so have also been questioned by another of the UK's now retired political in...

The writing community is quite rightly worried about generative AI in two ways. Can a writer be replaced by something like ChatGPT, and could we be accused of using generative AI to do our work for us? One possible solution is to use AI itself to fight back. But before getting into the detail, I ought to explain why this piece isn't titled 'The real McCoy'. That was my first inclination for a title (and I'm sure ChatGPT would have gone with it). It would have given me an opportunity to lever Star Trek into the discussion, and it's a familiar phrase that highlights the issue we're dealing with. According to my trusty Brewer's, the phrase was originally 'the real MacKay' in Britain. A lot of people apparently thought the US version was based on a US boxer called McCoy, but apparently it arose (not entirely surprisingly) in Scotland and was exported to the US as a way of highlighting true Scotch, as opposed to US whiskey. I switched the title to 't...