Brief encounter: Martin Rees, Astonomer Royal

What is the first news event you can recall?

It was the 1951 Festival of Britain on the South Bank, especially the “Dome of Discovery”—fascinating to a technically-inclined child. It’s shameful that the millennium celebrations were such a come-down from this inspiring achievement of the hard-pressed Attlee government.

Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with?

Among scientists, Galileo or Darwin would be good company— Newton absolutely not. But I’d actually choose an explorer: Captain Cook. No future explorers will experience the…