The Life Scientific

Finally for Monday, Front Row has a special edition reporting live from the announcement of this year's winner of the Booker Prize, with the judges picking one of the six finalists at 9.30pm on Radio 4.

Onwards to Tuesday, November the 10th, and starting with The Life Scientific, where Jim Al-Khalili's guest is the naturalist, broadcaster and conservation campaigner, Chris Packham.

He also speaks candidly about autism and mental health and his own personal diagnosis with Asperger's.

That's The Life Scientific at 9am on Radio 4.

That's followed by Inside Health, which looks at how much of a difference robotic surgery could make.

In the next 10 years, the NHS plans to carry out half a million operations using robots.

As he points out, when it comes to the depths of the ocean, there's plenty to be found.

Bob Ballard, welcome to The Life Scientific.

It's nice to join you.

Thank you for having me.

And thank you for listening.

I'm Jamal Khalili and my producer is Lucy Taylor.

If you enjoyed listening to this edition of The Life Scientific, why not check out some of our other interviews with leading scientists, exploring everything from space travel to medical breakthroughs.

You can access the whole archive of programmes for free via BBC Sounds. .

Radio 3 in Concert this evening presents the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with a concert on the themes of protest, power, revolution and resistance.

That's on Radio 3 at 7.30pm. Robert Ballard's career in deep sea exploration, including his discovery of the wreck of the Titanic, is a subject of The Life Scientific on Radio 4 at 9pm.

In Kiri's Farm, farmer's daughter and comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean gets to grips in running her smallholding on Anglesey, the island of Inismon.

Kiri's Farm is on Radio 4 at 11pm.

A question that I suspect becomes particularly interesting somewhere around day four of Glastonbury.

Professor Gilly Forrester, welcome to Life Scientific.

Thank you for having me.

Julie, you spent much of your career working with our closest relatives, the great apes, and you've argued that instead of attempting to teach them our language, we really should be trying to understand theirs.

And without that evolutionary history and that bridge to the natural world, we wouldn't be the humans that we are today.

So I'm a proud great ape.

Julie Forrester, thank you very much for sharing your Life Scientific.

Thank you.

Gilly's work has taken her from Gorilla Island in Gabon to the living rooms of parents with newborn babies to Glastonbury Festival, all in the name of finding out what it means to be human, a question that I suspect becomes particularly interesting somewhere around day four of Glastonbury.

LAUGHTER Professor Gilly Forrester, welcome to Life Scientific.

Thank you for having me.

Gilly, you spent much of your career working with our closest relatives, the great apes, and you valued that instead of attempting to teach them our language, we really should be trying to understand theirs.

And without that evolutionary history and that bridge to the natural world, we wouldn't be the humans that we are today.

So I'm a proud great ape.

Julie Forrester, thank you very much for sharing your life scientific.

Thank you.

Radio 3 in Concert this evening presents the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with a concert on the themes of protest, power, revolution and resistance.

That's on Radio 3 at 7.30pm. Robert Ballard's career in deep sea exploration, including his discovery of the wreck of the Titanic, is a subject of The Life Scientific on Radio 4 at 9pm.

In Kiri's Farm, farmer's daughter and comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean gets to grips in running her smallholding on Anglesey, the island of Inismon.

Kiri's Farm is on Radio 4 at 11pm.

Maybe it comes down to good genes.

Edith Heard, welcome to Life Scientific.

Thank you.

Very happy to be here.

At times like this where, you know, the world is in turmoil, it's important to remember that science is successful when people move around, that science should happen without boundaries, that in a way the scientific endeavour is a global endeavour.

And crossing both, I would say, geographic boundaries, but also scientific boundaries is key to success.

Edith, thank you very much for sharing your life scientific.

Thank you.