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The Life Scientific: Sarah Harper

Jim Al-Khalili talks to Professor Sarah Harper about societal ageing and falling fertility

People around the world are living longer and, on the whole, having fewer children. What does this mean for future populations? Sarah Harper CBE, Professor in Gerontology at the University of Oxford, tells presenter Jim Al-Khalili how it could affect pensions, why it might mean we work for longer, and discusses the ways modern life is changing global attitudes to when we have children, and whether we have them at all. Fertility and ageing have been Sarah's life's work and she tells her story of giving up a career in the media to carry out in-depth research, and going on to study population change in the UK and China, setting up the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and later becoming a Scientific Advisor to UK Government.

Presenter: Jim Al-Khalili
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

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27 minutes

Last on

Tue 16 Jan 2024 13:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 15 Jan 2024 20:32GMT
  • Mon 15 Jan 2024 21:32GMT
  • Tue 16 Jan 2024 05:32GMT
  • Tue 16 Jan 2024 13:32GMT

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