Showing results by author "Kevin Fong" in All Categories

In these ten absorbing series, award-winning authors Naomi Alderman and Philip Ball and guest presenters take a look at the many amazing events and characters from science's long history. Among the topics explored are feuding dinosaur hunters, jumping genes, the engine that nearly ran out of steam, the day the Earth stopped standing still, how laughing gas was discovered, the first female professional scientist in Britain, and how an eel sparked our interest in electricity.

Little more than 100 years ago, maps of the world still boasted white space: places where no human had ever trod. Within a few short decades the most hostile of the world's environments had all been conquered. Likewise, in the 20th century, medicine transformed human life. Doctors took what was routinely fatal and made it survivable. As modernity brought us ever more into different kinds of extremes, doctors pushed the bounds of medical advances and human endurance. Extreme exploration challenged the body in ways that only the vanguard of science could answer.

Professor Kevin Fong was flying with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second, life-or-death decisions in the most extreme circumstances. Then he was seconded to the NHS's Covid-19 Strategy Unit, tasked with leading the fight against pandemic. In this gripping blend of memoir and reportage, he confronts a disturbing truth: the quest for 'zero harm' can prevent the saving of lives.