TELEVISION science programmes are often marred by a kind of frenzied desperation, where special effects and eccentric presenters are felt necessary to sugar difficult ideas for popular consumption.

Next week, however, you can see a successful return to simpler days when science could be televised in the form of a lecture, with the minimum of fuss and gimmicks. Except, perhaps, that the professor delivering this lecture is wearing a dinner jacket.

The programme is striking for a number of reasons. It gives a refreshingly rounded view of the science of mad cow disease; it contains a vicious attack on ministerial incompetence; it is made by the Vega Science Trust, the brainchild of Britain`s latest Nobel laureate, Sussex University`s Sir Harry Kroto.

But perhaps most striking of all is the timing: broadcast at 4.30 in the morning on BBC2`s The Learning Zone on September 2.

The Trust was set up by Sir Harry to get more serious science on television. It seems a shame that this solid, informative programme on such an important subject can only find a home on the BBC`s night time service.

What is wonderful is how this creaky format can serve understanding so well. All Vega has done is to record a presentation given by Prof Roy Anderson of Oxford University to the Royal Institution in London.

The historic venue explains the dinner jacket. When Sir Humphry Davy gave his Institution lectures in the early 19th century they were so fashionable that London`s first-ever one-way system had to be established in Albemarle Street, so the great and the good could arrive without delay.

For those who still find BSE baffling, Prof Anderson`s lecture builds a picture of the mad cow fiasco, brick by brick. He highlights some of the crucial mistakes which contributed to the epidemic. At an early stage, "alarm bells should have been ringing", because of demonstrations of the ability of the BSE agents to cross species barriers.

As a member of the then Advisory Council on Science and Technology, which advised ministers, he had access to the chief scientist whom he told of his worries that the then predictions of the rapid demise of the BSE epidemic were too optimistic.

A letter was written at the end of the 1980s to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, asking it to release data for independent analysis. A polite note informed Prof Anderson that they had all the expertise they needed. "Although this is with hindsight, it is a great pity," said Prof Anderson.

If his group had applied its epidemiological expertise, it would have become apparent in 1990 that the attempt to stop feed contaminated with BSE from going into the cattle food chain had failed.

Only in May 1996 did the group get the data for the analysis of the epidemic, which also revealed maternal transmission of the disease and the future decline of the epidemic under a number of scenarios. "Government departments must be open with information, not just to the scientific community but to the public," he said. Government research lacks the funding, expertise and clout to deal with this issue.

The cock-ups continued. Science had no influence over the cull of 140,000 cattle laid down in the Florence agreement last year, he said. It was a political compromise, and had "virtually zero impact". But the scientists have not been above blame.

"Scientists should learn to say `I don`t know the answer`," he said, referring to some of the wilder speculation about the risk BSE poses to humans.

"Similarly, politicians must be prepared to repeat this statement and, where human health and safety is concerned, to adopt a precautionary principle."

Roger Highfield
Copyright © 1998 The Daily Telegraph