Sir David King Opens BA Science Festival in Liverpool

The 2008 BA Science Festival has begun in Liverpool. Professor Sir David King, President of the BA, is due to address the Festival this evening and is expected to call for a shift in focus of science research in the UK, with the nation's most innovative minds applied to the world's most significant challenges, such as climate change.

It has been widely reported in the media today that Sir David will suggest that less time and resources be spent on space exploration and particle physics: controversial given the imminent opening of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN later this week.

In his speech, Sir David is to criticise anti-GM advocates and to argue that advanced approaches to agriculture, such as GM crops, are the only way that Africa can feed itself. He is quoted in today's media as saying: "The position taken by non-governmental organisations and international organisations is to support traditional agricultural technologies. These technologies will not deliver the food for the burgeoning population of Africa,"..."Suffering within that continent is largely driven by attitudes in the West which are anti-science and anti-technology. We have the technology to feed the population of the planet. Do we have the ability to understand what we have?"

Click here for further details of events taking place at the BA Festival (6 - 11 September)