Scottish Book Trust Project Name



Date: 22nd May 2014

Author/Interview subject: Lucy Hawking (LH)

Interviewed by: Janice Forsyth (JF)

Other speakers: Boy in audience (Boy #), Girl in audience (Girl #)

JF: Hello there, a very warm welcome to Authors Live from Pacific Quay. I'm Janice Forsyth, how are you? Lovely to see you waving back. Today we are going to have such a great time, we're not really undertaking much, no. We're just exploring space! That's right. We're also unlocking your imagination. I know that'll be easy for you guys. And discovering the secret key to the universe. Oh! Are you all set for that? Great! I'm really glad!

Right here on planet earth we have wonderful pupils from Denny Primary School. I know I always say our schools that are with us are great, but this lot are a particular fantastic bunch. As well as thousands of children throughout the Commonwealth, all tuning in via Commonwealth Class, including Stenness Primary in Orkney, thank you so much! And Jodhamal Public School in Jammu in India! Thank you so much for joining us today. Hello, thumbs up to you too.

I think we should all give one another a massive intergalactic wave. Let's do that now! Aren't Denny Primary School gorgeous? Across the Commonwealth, how fabulous? Well, guiding us on our cosmic treasure hunt today and helping us all unlock the secrets of the universe is the totally fantastic author of the George books, I love these books so much, including the brand new George and the Unbreakable Code. So if you're all ready, here, Denny Primary School in Glasgow and wherever you're watching across the universe, please give a massive, out of this world welcome to Lucy Hawking! [Applause]

LH: Good morning everybody, and thank you for joining me on this great cosmic adventure that we're going on today. Today we're going to travel far, far across the universe and we're going to see some extraordinary sights, and we're going to meet some of the amazing people who've flown in space. And I'm going to warn you now, not all of them are human.

Now, I am an author and I work with scientists to write adventure stories about the universe. So let's have a look at a little bit of the universe. This is our subject and this is what we write about. But we don't just write about what happens in the universe. We write about what would it be like for us if we could go there. What would we see? What would we feel? And what would you want to say to your best friend when you got home again? What about if we could go here and see the cosmic ice sculptures in the Carina Nebula, or if we could go here and see the Sombrero Galaxy? Now, Sombrero, it's a big Mexican hat, and this galaxy has got dust and rocks in orbit around the brim. And then the central hat bulge is made up of stars.

But this is a long, long way away from home. So let's come in a little bit closer and let's actually land somewhere for a minute. This photo is taken on Mars and it's Mars on a Friday afternoon, and I think it's got that oh, thank god it's Friday feeling about it. It's just you and your robotic explorer chilling out. You can put your space boots up on a red rock and look out over the dusty pink martian sunset.

Let's come even closer to home, and look, we've found planet Earth. Our beautiful blue green little planet just hanging there in the blackness of space. And astronauts who've flown into space and turned and looked back at planet earth all say the same thing. It's magnificent, it's beautiful, and when you see it from space you think about us as a planet. You think about us, the human race. You don't think about all the divisions we put in place between ourselves. You see the unity and the beauty.

Now, let's zoom in a bit closer. Does anybody know what town we're in now? We've landed on earth; anybody know where we've landed? This is my home town. And have a quick guess? Yes?

Boy 1: Paris?

LH: Paris? No.

Girl 1: Cambridge.

LH: Cambridge, well done. We have landed in Cambridge. This is my home town. And as you can see people go up and down the river on these funny looking flat boats. So let's zoom a bit closer and look, it's me. There I am, punting along the River Cam. Now, Cambridge is famous all over the world, and it's not famous just because of these funny boats. Does anybody know what is there in Cambridge that makes it famous that means people have heard of it? Cambridge has a… Does anybody want to finish the sentence? Cambridge has a… You're thinking about it?

Cambridge has a university that has been there for a very, very long time. It's been there for so long that if we were to make Cambridge University a birthday cake we would need a huge number of candles. Does anybody want to take a guess how many candles? Yes?

Boy 2: Four hundred and fifty?

LH: Four hundred and fifty? Even more! Anybody got more candles than that?

Boy 3: About a 1000?

LH: About a 1000, yes, somewhere in-between the two. We need about 805 candles for Cambridge University. So let's take a trip back into the past and meet some of the scientists who made Cambridge their home.

This man is called Isaac Newton and when he saw the apple fall to earth he was able to imagine a deeply hidden link with the way that the moon goes around the earth. And with that he discovered gravity. Charles Darwin, another Cambridge scientists sailed all across the world and collected information. And from this information he developed his theories about how life evolved on earth. And then Watson and Crick, they used their own work and those of colleagues to unlock the molecule of life itself; DNA. So three very great discoveries; DNA, evolution and gravity came from Cambridge. And these are some of the things we write about in George and the Unbreakable Code.

But it's an adventure story, so we don't just have a science storyline. We have an adventure storyline and so we have an invisible spaceship. There's a spaceship in orbit around the earth and sometimes you can see it and sometimes you can't. And that means that if somebody was trapped, if your friend was trapped on that spaceship it would be very hard to try and find them. We also have some robots; we have a robot that somebody has built a robot that looks so like themselves that nobody can tell the robot and the real person apart. And then we ask this question; who would only ever wear a onesie? So these are some of the big questions in George and the Unbreakable Code.

But where did George come from? Let's go back to the once upon a time of George. George lives with his parents and his pig at the bottom of the garden. One day the pig goes missing and so George follows the pig into the dark, mysterious and scary world of next door where he meets a little girl. And the little girl takes him to meet her father who's a scientist who works with a super computer called Cosmos, and this computer is so powerful that he can draw a window onto the universe and you can look through it and you can see amazing things happening.

And the first time that George sees Cosmos in action, Cosmos shows him how a star is born. He shows him an area of space that's like this. This is called a Stella Nursery and great clouds of gas and dust compact through time and through gravity until they get so hot at the heart they start to burn that turns it into a star. And George sees the whole lifespan of the star, speeded up because this actually takes millions of years to happen. And he sees what happens when the star reaches the end of its life and explodes. The great big supernova explosion, sending the outer shell of the star outwards across space, these hot gassy clouds.

And in the clouds are all the things the star made when it was burning. And these are called the elements. So the calcium in your teeth, oxygen you breathe, maybe if any of the grownups wearing something made of gold, these were all forged in the flash of a dying star. So George learns we're all made of star dust.

But Cosmos the computer doesn't just do windows, he also does doors. He can draw a doorway that you can walk through to any part of the known universe you want to visit. And pretty much number one rule, when you have a computer this powerful is that kids may not get the computer, open up the doorway to space, and jump through when their parents are out. When I'm sorry to say is exactly what George and Annie do. And they jump through the doorway and they land on a comet. And they're surfing around the solar system on this comet. And they get so close to the giant ringed planet of Saturn that George can reach out a hand and take a rock out of the rings.

Now, again, it's an adventure story, so there has to be a bad guy! And here is our bad guy. This is evil Dr Reaper who wants to get all the science and all the scientific knowledge in the world and keep it for himself because he thinks then I will be rich. Now, he is against the other scientist we met earlier, Eric. Eric is a good scientist and he wants to share his knowledge to the whole of humanity. So Dr Reaper has to stop Eric because he wants all the information just for himself. And so he cooks up a plan to send Eric into the path of a black hole.

Now, earlier when we saw the star explode, that was the outer shell of the star that went outwards across space. But if it was a really huge star then the inner core could collapse in on itself to become a black hole; an area of space where gravity is so dense that nothing, not even light can escape.

Now, I'm just going to stop for a second because I told you at the beginning that I work with scientists to write these books. And I'd like to introduce you to one of my scientists now. Here he is. This is my father; his name is Stephen Hawking and he was once on the Simpsons, which he really, really enjoyed but he said he's glad he doesn't have to be bright yellow forever. Now, here he is in reality and you can see that he's in a wheelchair and he's in a wheelchair because he's had a very long illness that's taken away his ability to move his muscles, and taken away his natural speaking voice.

So later on when you hear him talking to you it will sound a bit robotic, but I'd like you to just try and bear in mind that it is a real man and he's using the computer there to give himself back the voice his illness has taken away.

Now, we're very often asked who would write a story about black holes? Why would you do that? Where did the idea come from? And in fact we've been asked it so often that we've made it into an animation, and this is the first time this has ever been shown, so I hope you like it. [Video playback]

"Once upon a time there was a scientist called Stephen who used his amazing brain to travel across the universe.

Stephen the scientist had lots of theories about black holes and what happened at the beginning of the universe. He also had a little daughter called Lucy and she loved to imagine that she got her name from those diamonds in the sky.

When Lucy grew up she heard a little boy at a birthday party ask Stephen what would happen to me if I fell into a black hole? Everyone at the party stopped what they were doing. You'll be turned into spaghetti, Stephen said. All the kids got it. The parents were a bit confused, they didn't understand although they all pretended they did. It makes perfect sense to me said the boy. He knew exactly what Stephen meant. Lucy who was a writer by now realised that this was the start of a great adventure story. From a bowl of spaghetti George was created.

Now, together Stephen and Lucy write adventure stories about two kids, Annie and George, who travel across the universe using the scientific knowledge they learnt to fight the forces of evil and save planet earth. So good luck on all your cosmic journeys and remember, don't fly too close to a black hole!"

So a very good piece of advice there: don't fly too close to a black hole. But what if you did? What if you did that and you fell in? What would happen to you then? Can you come out of a black hole? Well, I'm not going to tell you the answer to that because that will spoil George's Secret Key to the Universe for anyone who hasn't read it. But I will tell you this; if you ever find yourself in a very dark place, don't despair, there is a way out.

Now, we're going to have a look at George's cosmic treasure hunt and for this we're going to actually get into the spaceship ourselves. So I want you to put on your spacesuits and buckle yourself into the left hand seat, because when you sit in the left hand seat this means you are now the commander of our spaceship. And so we're going to take off, we're going to have the mighty blast of power that it takes to propel our spacecraft up and off the earth.

And what is the first thing we find? Well, it's this; space junk. There are around one million bits of space junk in orbit around the earth, and this is everything from a fleck of paint to a chunk of old space ship. And some people even say there's a toothbrush up there in orbit around the earth. And if that's true then that toothbrush is going at the same speed at everything else, which is 17,500mph. So commander, I need you to steer our spacecraft past the speedy space toothbrush and dock. So dock the space craft for me please at the International Space Station. And once you've docked we're going to climb through the hatch and see what we can find.

And what have we found? We've found some people. And what are they doing that's unusual? Anybody got any thoughts? What's unusual? Yes?

Girl 2: They're floating.

LH: They're floating, exactly. It's a zero gravity environment upon the space station. And this means that all sorts of things we take for granted are suddenly quite hard to do. What about eating? If you opened your pack lunch in the school canteen and you had to actually catch your sandwiches because they were all going to float away, or if you went to lie down on your bed but you weren't actually lying on it, you're floating above it, and your duvet is floating over you, and then you fall asleep and you float off around your house bumping into people. This used to happen on the space station. That's why they now get into sleeping bags and stick themselves onto the wall.

Using the toilet, it's very difficult to do in space. But fortunately NASA will give you special toilet training lessons before you go to the international space station. And astronauts also have jobs to do, they're called missions. They go up to do a mission and they know what they'll be doing in advance. And here we have an astronaut and he's on a spacewalk. He's outside of his space craft; it's just the space suit and him and space as the backdrop, which must be amazing.

And they look, astronauts look, they make observations about planet earth and they also do experiments. And a friend of mine went into space and he was asked to do some experiments by kids and he filmed the results. So I'm going to show you what happens when you try to gargle in space. [Video playback]

"There were six of you that asked about gargling in space, brushing your teeth and spitting in a sink and a lot of those other very practical daily functions. Well, here in space they have to be done a little bit differently. For example, there's no sink, there's no traditional plumbing like you would see in a normal house. Instead for example here is a drink bag that I've created; I filled up with some water for an earlier experiment. I've unfolded a little straw here at the end from which I can drink and I will attempt to gargle.

But I can tell you as a fact it does not work. As soon as you start the water just starts coming out of your mouth because there's no gravity to hold it back in. So around here once something gets moving in a certain direction, water droplets for example, off they go and you'll have a hard time getting them back, that's why I brought my towel."

So he told you he's got his towel, he's in space with his towel. But what else could you do in space with a towel? [Video playback]

"Well, here's a towel and you'll notice that the towel actually would make a mighty fine magic carpet because up here in space everything floats. And so I can easily take this towel and get on top of it and fly around as if it was my own personal magic carpet. If you were here you could have one too. Here in space towels make perfectly good magic carpets."

Now, you heard Richard the astronaut say there if you were here you could have one too. But how could we be there? He's in space but how are you and I ever going to get into space? It's over 40 years since NASA astronauts first walked on the moon and this is actually the second man on the moon walking around, filled his pockets with moon rock to take back down to earth. This is the first ever footprint of a human being on the moon. So we got there, we stood on the moon and then we stopped exploring space. It was although we got to the moon and we felt that's far enough; we've done space now. We've got to the moon and we gave up.

So the good news now is that there are lots of new space missions being planned, all sorts of new ideas and possibilities are coming up. There's this, Excalibur Almaz. If you have $150m you too could buy a seat on this spacecraft to the moon. But also planning to go further than we've ever been before, what about if we could actually go to Mars. We're trying to build spacecraft now, we're trying to plan what that journey would be like and who would go on it. And so the exciting news for you guys is that you're probably about the right age. When you grow up you'll probably be almost exactly the right age to join a mission to Mars, which means that maybe somebody in this room is going to be the very first person to step out of a spacecraft and put your footprint onto the red planet.

But what about me? I'm too old; I'm never going to go to Mars. So what about me? Could I have a holiday in space? Certainly Sir Richard Branson thinks I could. He wants us all to go into space as our new holiday destination. And if we did that what kind of things would we be able to post on social media? Do you think it would be like that? This is me doing something called the zero gravity flight. I'm not actually in space; I'm in an aircraft that flies in great big curves. And when it flies over the curve it gives you the experience of being in zero gravity.

And also as we start travelling further and further ourselves we have to ask ourselves another question; who are we going to meet? And what do you think they might look like? Now, the actual truth is we're more likely to hear the aliens before we see them. We have great big telescopes called radio telescopes, and they collect radiation, noise and information. And astronomers listen to all this to see if they can pick out a signal, see if they can pick out something that might be ET phoning us up. Now, it hasn't happened yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't going to.

So, the big bang. The universe began in the big bang 13.8 billion years ago. Immediately after the big bang the universe was very hot, very dense, like a tiny little soup made up of really weird stuff. It expanded very, very quickly through a process called inflation and this generated ripples which later on would trigger the formation of stars, galaxies, planets and us.

And so this is where we find George, at the beginning of George and the Big Bang. He's looking for a home in space for his pig. So he's asked Cosmos the computer where could my pig live in space? And this is what Cosmos has done. He's given him a printout of all the planets in the solar system and what it would be like for a pig to live on them. So we'll do a very quick tour of the solar system with a pig. Here we have Fred and he's kind of bouncing. And he's bouncing because he's landed on Mars. If you were on Mars and you jumped up, you'd go two and a half times higher than you would on earth and you'd stay up for two and a half times longer. So you'd be able to cover the surface of Mars in great long bouncy leaps.

Here we have Fred and he's orbiting. He's gone orbital because he's gone to Saturn. And Saturn, you saw it earlier, you saw the rings, but what I didn't tell you is that Saturn has over 60 moons. And if we were to go down to the surface of this little moon, this is called Titan, this is what we'd see; black lakes of methane, frozen mountains. And scientists think that Titan might be like the earth was before life began. So they look at Titan to see if we can work out clues from Titan that will tell us how life began on earth.

Well, here's Fred and he's being blown away. Poor Fred! He doesn't look very happy there because he's landed on Neptune. And Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system. And here he is and he's looking happy, and he's happy because he's landed on earth. And the earth is the perfect planet for life, has liquid water, we can breathe the atmosphere, the gravity is right for us, it gives us sources of food and it's the right sort of temperature. And so why really would we ever go anywhere else? Why would we ever go into space? Well, some scientists think that we're taking a big risk by just existing on one planet. What if for example a huge chunk of rock came out from space and hit the surface of the earth and released a flood of eruptions. It'd be hard for the human race to survive that.

Or what about the things we do to earth ourselves? What about the way we treat our planet? This pretty image shows an area that used to be all fertile ground and now the only vegetation is that tiny little red spot there. So some scientists think we need to start finding a new planet to live on because we're exhausting and overwhelming the planet Earth.

But can we do this? Well, we can look for planets in space. We have telescopic and we've found hundreds and thousands now of planets in space, and maybe, maybe some of them will be like earth. But we can't get to these planets yet. Earlier you saw that we only just managed to get to the moon and that's just like popping around the corner in terms of the size of the universe. So we're going to need a whole new revolution in spacecraft technology. We're going to need a new way to travel across space if we're going to get to a second planet earth. So that means that we need to take good care of the planet that we're on.

Now, we've been a long way through space this morning so we're going to very quickly travel through time. And don't worry, because this section will actually be over before it's even begun. What if you could go back in time and meet yourself? What would that be like? What if I could go back to 1984? This is me in 1984. What if I could go back to 1974 and see myself as a small child? What would that be like? What could I do? Could I do something in the past that would change the future? Well, my father has a theory that if time travel becomes possible in the future then we would already be being visited by tourists, that people from the future would be using time machines to come back and see us now.

So what he did is he had a party. He had a party and he printed invitations and he left them in places where he thought people of the future would find them. And he'd put the coordinates and the time, and this is an actual photo from the party. We put up the balloons and we opened the crisps and we opened the fizzy drinks and we waited. And we waited, and nobody came. No party guests from the future turned up. So that's just one way of thinking about time travel and one way of wondering whether it really will ever become possible.

We get asked a lot about worm holes. What's a worm hole? Well, it's a shortcut through space and time that exists in theory. So that means we haven't been able to make one. And even if we could it would be very hard to make one that was big enough for a person to fit through, and then we'd need a huge amount of something called negative energy to hold it open, and we haven't invented that either yet. So that's not looking very hopeful either.

But what can we do? Well, we can look. We can look back using space telescopes. We look a huge distance across the universe and we see images like this. Each of those dots is a galaxy and the light from the oldest galaxy is ten billion years old. So you're actually looking back in the past by ten billion years. And we can build experiments. This is the Large Hadron Collider. And this is an experiment to recreate the early universe, so just after the big bang that we talked about earlier. And in George and the Big Bang there's a dark sinister group of people who are trying to destroy the Collider because they don't want the secrets of the early universe to become known.

So that brings me nearly to the end of my time as your guide on this cosmic adventure. It is time for me to hang up my space boots, but not for you. For you the journey is actually just beginning and I hope that I've been able to open the doorway onto space for you and show you some of the extraordinary, the fantastic, the bizarre and the fascinating things that lie out there. And I hope that you will want to go on exploring, because it won't be me, it won't be any of the scientists that I work with who travel further across the solar system than any human being has ever been before, or who maybe picks up the phone and gets the first communication from an intelligent alien, or who designs a new type of rocket ship that means that we finally manage to reach a second planet earth. It'll be somebody in this audience. So thank you very much for listening and good luck on all your cosmic journeys.

JF: Thank you very much indeed. I think we should have a massive round of applause for Lucy. [Applause] Thank you. Wow. Take a seat. I think you deserve to sit down after that too.

LH: Well, we've all travelled a long way today, and you did very, very well and well done for keeping up, especially in the time travelling section because I know that's complicated. But I thought you were all with me as I tried to explain it to you. So I hope you made sense.

JF: I'm so impressed with this audience and all of you listening and watching wherever you are, totally impressive for me. I'm going to have a wee think about this when I go home, about the time travelling section of it. Now, we've time for some questions and we've actually got a couple of questions, Lucy, from some people here.

LH: Oh, exciting.

JF: So let's go to our first question. We've got a microphone coming to you. Oh, you've got your microphone. And you must say what your name is, your first name.

Girl 3: Lucy.

JF: On your go.

Girl 3: Lucy.

JF: Lucy!

LH: Hi! Hello, Lucy.

Girl 3: Did your dad help you with your science homework when you were at school?

LH: Yes, he did. He was actually very helpful and he used to explain a lot of things to me. But then my older brother is also very good at science, so if I didn't understand what my dad had said I would then ask my brother, but what did that mean?

JF: A great question, thank you very much. From Lucy to Lucy!

LH: Lucy to Lucy.

JF: And we have another question. Thank you very much. What's your name?

Boy 4: Luke.

JF: Hi Luke.

LH: Hi Luke.

Boy 4: Do you have any plans to update Cosmos the laptop to a tablet?

LH: Well, that's a brilliant question! Thank you so much. We keep playing around with different versions of Cosmos, so in one of the books we develop a super computer that's a nano version but that is disguised as a hamster called Pookie, so that we've got this extra little super computer. But that's such a good question; of course he should be a tablet. Thank you so much.

JF: Thank you very much, Luke.

LH: I'll put your credit in the next book!

JF: A great question. That's the thing, you have to keep up-to-date, you have to keep thinking of new developments presumably.

LH: Absolutely.

JF: And I wonder how does the process work then with the writing of the books? Is there an idea about a scientific theme that you want to explore?

LH: Yes.

JF: Is that what you zone in on first and then the story comes from that, or is it the other way around?

LH: Well, we have to think about what we're trying to explain in terms of the science. So the first book was quite straightforward because we wanted to write about black holes, we were asked the question by the boy at the birthday party, and so we knew that's what we wanted to write about. So we set out to write about how stars form, how they die, how they become black holes and what that means and what happens. And so that was quite a straightforward one to do.

But it's getting more complicated now but we're trying to stay to the same principle. Think of an idea in science, think of a storyline that we can match to it and then put the two together.

JF: And it's really lovely, isn't it?

LH: It's fun.

JF: I'm sure you'll agree. You've got the really exciting adventure story but also we learn so much. I love looking at the photographs and all of that information too.

LH: I think the photos are really important because we wanted to try and show that we are describing the reality of the universe. And so the photos are really important to make it clear, yes, this is a fantasy storyline that introduces our readers to these concepts. But essentially what we're trying to do is describe a reality.

JF: Yeah, readers of all ages are learning may I say, including me, really old! Luke mentioned your dad, we have to ask you; what is it like having a dad…well, you've got a dad who's been in the Simpsons, but having a dad who's world famous for being so blooming clever? How is that for you?

LH: Well, when I was at school he wasn't famous and I think that's probably a good thing for me I think. He was a professor of physics and nobody had really heard of him. So I don't know what it would be like to be school age with somebody as famous as him, I think that would be more complicated especially now. But yes, it's very interesting having an extremely clever dad. And I've been trying to catch him out, like win at a game of scrabble or prove him wrong on a fact for years and years and years, and I still haven't managed.

JF: Oh really?

LH: I know, I'm still trying though.

JF: Gosh, good luck with that.

LH: Yeah.

JF: Now, I know that people here, watching wherever they are will be keen fans of the books, but also might be doing a bit of their own writing. And I wonder what it's like for you, you've written a few books. Do you just sit back and get used to it or do you get a wee thrill when you see, particularly young readers reading in schools and libraries or in bookshops, picking the books up?

LH: Well, one of the things that's most exciting for me about doing the writing and doing the job I do is the opportunity to come out and see a young audience and talk to people about the books, talk to actual readers. So I'll never get tired of that because that's the most exciting part; is actually talking about the books, taking questions from young readers and having a chance to explain what we're trying to do.

JF: Now you talked about the fact that we might hear aliens if there's anything going on out there. What do you really think? Do you think there is life out there? Is there really life?

LH: The universe is so unimaginable enormous that I can't believe for a second that we could be the only form of life. Whether there's actually intelligent life… My father sometimes says are we actually intelligent, which is a completely different question. I can't believe that we could be the only life form in such a vast and magnificent universe.

JF: Wow. And you clearly enjoyed the floating; I loved that photograph of you. That looks like such fun, doesn't it?

LH: It is really fun. I think it's the most fun thing I've ever, ever done. And I was all nervous about it before thinking oh, I wonder if I'll be able to…I wonder if I'll get it right. But then when you do it, it just happens, it's gravity. You don't have any control over it. Just like from sitting here I can't make myself float. When you're in zero gravity you float around and it's brilliant.

JF: I loved that photograph. Well look, thank you very much for answering the questions today. And of course, if any of you have got any other questions about space, unlocking your imagination, or just what it's like to work with brilliant scientists, of course you can join Lucy via Commonwealth Class, there'll be a discussion at 12 noon GMT. So you can get your question into Lucy, email it to commonwealthclass@bbc.co.uk, and of course you know, if you're watching this on catch-up or on demand you won't be able to take part in that online discussion. But it'll be fascinating nonetheless.

Now, we have one last very special treat for you; Lucy, do you want to introduce it?

LH: Yes. Last year my father and I sent a survey around to primary schools and we got lots of answers back. We were trying to find out topics that our readers were interested in. And then what we did is we got all the replies and we made it into an animation, and you will actually hear my father speaking because he's narrating it. Shall I play it now?

JF: Yes, please, that'll be fantastic. Thank you. [Video playback]

"Imagine. Imagine if we could build a city on the moon, where people live and work and kids go to school. Where supplies arrive by space elevator and spaceships arrive and leave every week. This is possible. Imagine if all the plastic in the seas could be recycled to make clean energy. We could light out homes, fuel our cars and give the fish a clean ocean to live in. This is possible.

Imagine if you could have a robot for a friend. Your robot could take you to school. It could cut your hair; it could brush your teeth and read you a story. This is possible. So many things are possible but you have to imagine them first. Can you imagine a future that no one else has thought of?"

Absolutely great, what a wonderful thing, the possibilities of the imagination.

LH: Exactly. Can you imagine a future that no one else has thought of?

JF: Just terrific. Well, thank you very much. That was out of this world, and I hope that all of you who are tuning in are going to use your imaginations to create your own stories, adventures and inventions. So thank you very much indeed for sharing that animation with us, Lucy, and for being with us today. I think we need to give Lucy and of course Professor Stephen Hawking a massive round of applause. On you go. [Applause]

Oh, I'm so excited. Before we go remember that as well as watching all of our previous Authors Live events at any time you can download the free learning resources, which are totally brilliant, to accompany each event. You go to the website which is authorslive. And another date for your diary, we have another event for P4 to 7s, that's on the 12th June at 11 o'clock in the morning, that's with Deadly 60 presenter and author Steve Backshall. So visit the Scottish Book Trust website and let us know you'll be watching. We love to know that you're doing that.

Authors Live is a joint production with the Scottish Book Trust and BBC Scotland Learning, it's supported by Creative Scotland and I think before we wind everything up, another huge round of applause, show your appreciation for all the scientists who have helped create the George books, Professor Stephen Hawking for narrating that wonderful animation and of course to the brilliant Lucy Hawking for bringing it all together. Thank you! [Applause]

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