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When I heard that local shops in my area would be involved in a trial using delivery robots, I was fascinated to know whether milk and groceries would be brought to my doorstep by R2D2…or maybe the Cylons from the new (ish) turbo-charged reboot of late ’70s classic space opera ‘Battlestar Galactica’.

Well, having just taken the dog for a walk round the block, I now know the answer…looks as if those teenage years spent immersed in Isaac Asimov novels was time well spent…

Big thanks to Mr Bill Astbury for his kind donation to Karen Sayers of Special Collections, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds of some new documents and letters from his grandfather, the scientist William Astbury. Bill first found these whilst clearing his own late father’s house and kindly shared them with me when I was researching my 2014 book about Astbury, ‘The Man in the Monkeynut coat’. The material includes Astbury’s birth & death certificate, letters with his family in which he talks about his failing health and a correspondence with some American colleagues about a proposed lecture tour to the USA a year before his death – but, far from being just a dull and turgid exchange between academics about dates and venues, these particular letters offer a powerful insight into the ugly politics of racial segregation in the US at that time. With this material & a revised edition of ‘Monkeynut Coat’ just out in paperback, the story of this scientific pioneer just keeps evolving…

A big thanks to Professor Jerome E. Groopman for his review of my book ‘Insulin – the Crooked Timber’ in 6th Oct edition of the New York Review of Books – but I was sorry to read of the death of Professor Arthur Riggs, one of the pioneers of recombinant human insulin and who kindly helped me with my research when I was writing the book.

And staying with the theme of bringing the history of science to a wider audience, I’d like to give a big thanks to Jen Farquharson, editor of ‘Viewpoint’ the magazine for the British Society for the History of Science for the invitation to give this interview in the latest edition – I really enjoyed thinking about these questions…