As an undergraduate I studied zoology at Bristol University, only to get hooked on the question of how science links with the outer world. I did a Masters in the history and philosophy of science, wanted to put what I knew into practice, and so trained as a school teacher.

During 13 years in London schools, I delved more and more into freelance writing. I wrote educational resources for diverse ages and then was unexpectedly commissioned to write a trilogy of radio plays for BBC World Service. One of these plays, a story of the 18th century clockmaker John Harrison, won a Glaxo/Association of British Science Writers award. I kept up the writing with a book about the philosophy of science for undergraduates, Thinking About Biology (CUP), and tried my hand at a number of different formats. I wrote the Guardian newspaper's weather column Weatherwatch for two years; and the music theatre piece Darwin's Dream, for which I wrote the libretto, was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall in 2006.

I became co-director of the Birkbeck diploma in science communication in 1995 and moved permanently to Imperial College in 1999.  I have been director of the Science Communication Group from 2009.

My research interests flow in two directions. Firstly,  the work that led to my PhD involved questions about art-science collaborations, looking especially at how a scientist might see benefits in such partnerships. Secondly I have a keen interest in the values expressed in the scientific identity - 'the scientific self' - and work on questions concerning the way scientific research incorporates cultural and personal values. To date the main outcome of this work has been two series of radio documentaries on BBC radio 4. Science in the Making was broadcast in June 2008. The three part series What Scientists Believe was broadcast in December 2009. You can download the individual episodes by clicking by right-clicking the links below and selecting "Save Link as":

What Scientists Believe 1: Philip Kilner, Medical Consultant

What Scientists Believe 2: Clare Lloyd, Professor of Respiratory Immunology

What Scientists Believe 3: Andrew Gosler, Zoologist

On the Masters courses I teach philosophy of science, and an ethics module. I also teach across the college, especially for the Graduate School of Life Sciences and Medicine, for whom I teach a workshop on research ethics.