My latest project is to produce a film about CERN – the largest physics experiment in the world, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Swansea University has been very closely associated with CERN right from the start. Eifionydd Jones from the physics department was the first to go there - and work on a Nobel prize-winning project. Another scientist who went to CERN was Lyn Evans – the scientist who designed the Large Hadron Collider. Following him out there was a young physicist who has now become the Head of Beams – Rhodri Jones. Lyn and Rhodri are both alumni and Fellows of Swansea University. But what I love about CERN is not the brilliant science that goes on there - although that is obviously excellent - but the way scientists from countries across the world, from all cultures under the sun, are happily collaborating and sharing their results.
I was there filming recently, and at the dinner table were Muhammad from Hebron in Palestine, Ynyr from Caernarfonshire, Monica from the United States, Livia from Italy and Smaragda from Greece. There is so much for our world’s politicians to learn from CERN staff and structure. 70 years ago, CERN came into being because scientists wanted to work together in the name of peace. After the second world war, and the bombs that fell on Japan, scientists wanted to create a huge experiment where European countries could all work and share the results. Now it’s open to countries outside Europe. Back in the days of the Inter-college Eisteddfod, I learned that we would never win alone. But by bringing other, different cultures together, it was possible to move mountains. The same is true at CERN. I try to be as outward-looking as I can – while also loving Welsh culture, its music, its poetry and its scientists! However, I worry that as a nation we will lose some of the things that are essential to our Welshness. We need to go out into the world to show our talents and to demand a level playing field on English television and radio, and around the world. It is our culture that sustains us. For a short time in the eighties, before going into broadcasting, I worked at the Water Board – and when I left, my boss gave me a gift. Just a plain picture with words on it - “IF YOU KNOW WHERE YOU COME FROM - THERE’S NO LIMIT TO WHERE YOU CAN GO.” Wise words I keep close to my heart to this day.
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