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Start the Week

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Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

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Anne McElvoy

Alison Woollard

Roger Kneebone

Sir Mark Elder

Katy Hickman

Start the Week: The Building Blocks of Life and Intelligence

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09/12/2013

The Building Blocks of Life and Intelligence

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, The Building Blocks of Life and Intelligence

Anne McElvoy talks to Alison Woollard, Kathryn Asbury, Roger Kneebone and Sir Mark Elder.

Anne McElvoy talks to the developmental biologist Alison Woollard, surgeon Roger Kneebone, psychologist Kathryn Asbury and conductor Sir Mark Elder.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the geneticist Alison Woollard about the extraordinary developments in biological science in the last decade, and how switching on and off certain genes could improve and extend life. The psychologist Kathryn Asbury studies the vexed question of nature and nurture, and whether a better understanding of genetic influence can improve children's education. Professor Roger Kneebone explains the role of jazz improvisation in the operating theatre, and what recreating surgery from the 1980s can teach modern clinicians. Raiding the past for hidden gems fascinates the conductor Sir Mark Elder as he prepares to bring operatic rarities to a new audience.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

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