Podcasts are wonderful things. I first listened to Prof Roberto Trotta’s lecture at Gresham College titled “The Future of Life on Earth” on Radio National’s Big Ideas podcast while I was working ‘out in the paddock’. The talk was so good, I knew I would have to revisit it because it contained so much fascinating information I didn’t know.

Two nights ago, I woke in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep; so I got up to write down some gems from the lecture. When I listened to it this second time, I made lots of handwritten notes; I was determined to capture some of the most salient to encourage readers of this blog to find out why I was so excited that everyone should know about it.

I don’t mind admitting that, even though I am ‘old’ and somewhat experienced, even though I studied physics and chemistry at high school and at university, even though I got a higher degree and became an academic in Rural Science at a university, I can tell you that I am ignorant about so many things!

Who is this Professor Roberto Trotta who I had never heard of, I pondered? A quick look at his webpage tells me he is from the “Italian speaking part of Switzerland” (and he speaks English rather well too!). I am reminded that Switzerland generates more greats than Roger Federer!

Here are just a few ‘gems’ that you may wish to follow up in his talk, if you are so inspired …

Carl Sagan’s “pale blue dot”
Voyager 1 and 2 travelling 60,000 km during the length of his talk!
The messages ‘in a bottle’ on the Golden Record
The wonderful value of our Moon for life itself!
How H > He > … > C > … > O > … > Ne > … > Si > … Fe are created via fusion in massive stars!
Jonas Salk asking “Are we being good ancestors”?
Then, some 50,000 years ago, our most powerful weapon somehow appeared: …
The words of Alfred Einstein in 1932 about “the inventive genius of mankind” and the dangers of the “machine age” we have created
The plight of the passenger pigeons
The ethics of leaving our planet
Intelligent life - where is it?
“The future is in our hands” … “it is our urgent task today … to repurpose (the march of the megamachine) … so it may serve the needs of all life on Earth …”
And his final 5 words: “We cannot afford to fail” .

Until I heard Trotta’s talk, I was unaware of most of the above points, but I identify closely with the latter four.

When I tried to condense his talk to just the few dot points shown above, it was a daunting task. There were so many quotable quotes embedded in his wonderful lecture. You can see the magnitude of my task by glimpsing how much of the entire talk was covered by my highlighter marks …

My inadequate attempt to highlight the key points of Trotta’s fabulous lecture

What is this Gresham College that I had never heard of? How can I be so ignorant? I am immensely impressed by the support for this presentation by Gresham College which, apparently, was established in 1597, even before the Enlightenment! Or perhaps it commenced it?

In my late night googling, I found a video of this same lecture. So I put on my headphones and enjoyed seeing him deliver it with a style that is outstanding. I recommend you get the full experience by viewing the video of the entire lecture provided by Gresham College here. You can also download a transcript here if you want to also enjoy the written version, as I did.

In my humble opinion, all living organisms on planet earth are much indebted to Professor Roberto Trotta and Gresham College.

(Footnote: The lecture described above seems to me to be most pertinent to my website. As I wrote on my Home Page when I started this website, “Hopefully, you will find these blogs of interest as we humans strive to secure a viable future for our precious blue planet”.)

Learning about 'The Future of Life on Earth' ...