Robyn Williams talks about inspiring young scientists, 2008

Transcript of the recording

Young children are natural scientists anyway, from the minute they do an experiment with their pudding to see if gravity works by shoving it off the highchair, and also being fascinated by animals and movement and colours and so on. And it's to exploit that interest and maintain it that we have the greatest challenge.

And of course if you go to school, one of the things that really puts you off is the feeling that science is something which always has the right answer rather than something which is a process of exploration. Now, of course there are right answers but they're not inevitable, and it's the exploration that's half the fun and the adventure. So for young people, I think we have first to maintain that enthusiasm, and secondly to tell them that the exploration is most of the fun, and don't be put off by finding that maybe the answer isn't quite the one that's been put in the book.