This year's Reith Lecturer is Professor Bernard Lovell. He is the first Director of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Observatory, and Professor of Radio Astronomy at Manchester University. During the Second World War, he helped to develop radar systems for aircrafts, for which he received an OBE in 1946. He delivers six lectures on the wonders of the solar system in his series entitled 'The Individual and the Universe'.

In his first lecture entitled 'Astronomy Breaks Free', Professor Bernard Lovell explores how our perception of astronomy has developed over the centuries. He considers how our relationship with our solar system has changed since finding out that Earth is not at the centre of the universe. Show less