Questions and answers with Adam Shaw about BBC's Horizons

The second part of of BBC's Horizons is coming to BBC World News DSTV Channel 400 - we speak to the host Adam Shaw about the series and interviewing Bill Gates.

How have your found the transition from business journalism to covering technology and science?

It is very smooth – both are technical subjects where the details are very important. They also need explaining in an imaginative and engaging way to bring them to life.

But you can be serious, responsible and interesting whilst also being fun. For example for this series of Horizons I visited a team in Manhattan who have designed the Socckett ball, a football that can charge batteries after it’s been kicked around. We had lots of fun playing around but there was a reason why we wanted to demonstrate the power of this simple but ingenious innovation.

In episode 9 you speak to Bill Gates – how did you secure such a high profile interview?

We spent a long time trying to secure an interview with him. When he saw the scope of the Horizons subject matter in this series, I think he was really taken by the scale and detail of the programme’s ambitions and was interested in being part of that. 

In each new series of Horizons we endeavour to search the globe to find these influential people, whether CEOs, scientists or designers who are inventing the latest technologies and innovations that could revolutionise the way we live.

Which technology did he highlight as being the most ground-breaking for African health issues?

He is famously interested in malaria and is still fighting hard to eradicate that. Unusually for a big charity foundation, he and Melinda don’t intend for the foundation to go on forever.

He wants to achieve certain aims, channel increasing amounts of money towards them and solve the problems they have highlighted and then close down.

Bill Gates famously said ‘once you get past your first billion, it’s still the same burger’ – is he still that down to earth?

He is very down to earth and he and Melinda were just like anyone else – they were very nice and very unassuming.

Did he speak of any of his own heroes in the fight against AIDS?

Not especially

In episode 15 you focus on cost-conscious science, including the 50c microscope – do you think governments are paying enough attention to these developments?

Across the four series’ of Horizons I have met many people and seen many inspiring innovations and scientific breakthroughs. From what I’ve seen it seems that these kinds of developments work best when commerce and government work together.

Sometimes that means financial support and sometimes that means creating an infrastructure in which science can flourish. By bringing these innovations to a global audience on BBC World News we hope to uncover the many weird and wonderful innovations happening across the world.

Professor Vijay Govindarajan is noted for his advocacy of ‘reverse innovation’ – what does this phenomenon mean for economies like South Africa?

Reverse innovation has tremendous power for change. It acknowledges that the most expensive methods and tools are not necessarily the best or most suitable in all situations. It shows that countries can often achieve the results they need with technology that is appropriate in terms of sophistication and cost. It doesn’t always need to be the most expensive developments.

Do you see South African businesses as key for innovating South Africa’s social and economic conditions?

In this latest series of Horizons we saw how many parts of South African business are driving future developments and we met some really inspiring people there.

They’re not just creating opportunities for themselves but also helping the whole country. It was enlightening and heartening and we were really excited to be there to see some of the wonderful innovations now underway in South Africa.

• You can catch Horizons Episode 9, Gates: Money and science: improving lives on 4 October on DSTV channel 400.