快猫短视频

The UK is spending less on research today than in 1986, when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, and there is great nervousness about how science will fare in the emergency budget next month. Can you say any more?

Clearly it is going to be tough. There is no disguising it. I don鈥檛 want to pretend any different. But there are some silver linings, and even when times are tough some good things can emerge. For example, I understand the importance of not trying to micromanage research scientists, and the importance of blue skies research.

Some of your fellow Conservatives hold the view that science can just as easily be done abroad and then exploited by British companies. Is this your view?

Not at all. There is an economic value to science, including an absorbative capacity. By this I mean the more people that you have who are scientifically literate, the greater the ability of your own society to respond to and benefit from scientific advances.

Rather than just being science minister, you will be responsible for both science and universities. Why is this?

A lot of science is done on university campuses. It seemed artificial to have separate ministers.

Your annual spending budget is almost 拢13 billion. Are there things you think you can do that your predecessor couldn鈥檛?

Within a fiscally tight position, I hope that bringing these areas together in a coherent way will help. I am going to be guided by the scientific community, which I have a great deal of respect for. I also admire what David Sainsbury [a former Labour science minister] achieved: we will not tear it up and start again.

What areas are you most passionate about?

In my new book, The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children鈥檚 future, I take a well-recognised political argument about cooperation and community 鈥� where I would say at least three different scientific disciplines collide: evolutionary biology, game theory and neuroscience 鈥� and root it in something more rigorous and scientific. I am very interested in what we understand about empathy and the evolution of cooperation from the likes of Robert Axelrod at the University of Michigan and Martin Nowak at Harvard University. Among other things, they have both shown how, in computerised tournaments, it is possible to reconcile selfish motives with acting for the collective good in the 鈥減risoner鈥檚 dilemma鈥�, a classic game theory problem used to explore the mechanisms of cooperation.

What are the prospects for the recently established UK Space Agency, another part of your brief?

It reminds me of looking at a beautiful hotel in a brochure and you turn up to find the foundations and a few breeze blocks. There鈥檚 a lot more to be done!