My expensive and occasionally dangerous fascination with science goes back to my childhood. In those pre-Internet days, before TED Talks about the power of introversion, YouTube videos of science tricks, and the ever-awesome Wikipedia, the broadcast documentary output of the BBC was the only way to see science in action, and—in one of the poorest areas of Cornwall, almost two hours’ drive from the nearest university—get a sense of what scientists looked like and how they talked about their work.