Jonathan 'Crusoe' roughs it in the name of science

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Just when you thought you couldn't take any more of the trials and tribulations of television castaways, the University has produced one of its own.

TV producers sent physicist Dr Jonathan Hare to a mystery Mediterranean island and told him to make survival equipment with little more than an old saucepan and his own ingenuity.

Jonathan, a member of the Sussex Fullerene Group headed by Nobel Prize winner Professor Sir Harry Kroto, was one of five scientists picked to take part in a new Open University series, Rough Science, which starts on BBC2 at the end of May.

But, unlike the Hebridean community from BBC1's docu-saga, Castaway 2000, the Rough Science team were not expected to live in makeshift shelters ... or fall in love with each other. "We stayed in a very nice hotel on the island," says Jonathan. "And we were far too busy working on the projects to become anything other than good friends."

The four-part series shows how Jonathan, who also runs the Creative Science Centre at Sussex, used the island's natural resources as well as odds and ends found in a deserted prison to put together some basic equipment.

He made a rudimentary crystal radio from a sawn-up saucepan (under the watchful eye of presenter Kate Humble, pictured above), a lump of a mineral called galena, and a mass of barbed wire. He also created a wooden record player powered by weights, a camera from bits of broken glass and mirrors, and a battery made out of seawater and pencils.

The rest of the team, which included a chemist, a molecular biologist, a marine biologist and a ethnobotanist, had to devise ways of making soap, insect repellent, dye and electricity. They also had to work out the longitude and latitude of their location in order to find out where they were (which turned out to be Capraia, off the coast of Italy).

"The point of it was to show how you don't need much in the way of money or high-tech materials to create science," explains Jonathan. "For me, it was great. I hadn't made a crystal set for about 15 years and it brought back lots of magical feelings. You couldn't just go down the shops and buy something. You had to make do with what you had."

The series' producers approached Jonathan at the suggestion of Sir Harry. "I helped them come up with some ideas and they then asked me if I wanted to take part," says Jonathan. "Some scientists worry about looking a bit silly on TV, but that didn't bother me at all. I think it's important that people stop thinking of scientists as mad-haired boffins in kipper ties. Hopefully, this series shows us as real people."

He spent three weeks on the "rugged and beautiful" island last year. "What was also great about it was working with others," he says. "So much of your time as a scientist is spent working alone, yet when you work with others it's the most wonderful thing. You're sharing ideas and thinking creatively."

Encouraging people to think of science as a creative activity is Jonathan's passion and the reason why he set up the Creative Science Centre on campus in 1995. He runs workshops for school children, and recently spent a week giving talks and demonstrations at the Science Museum.

He has just been awarded a £48,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), spread over four years, to develop his ideas. A NESTA spokesperson said: "Along with his academic achievements, Jonathan is also a highly talented communicator of science, with a special ability to make its complexities accessible, entertaining and inspirational to all ages."

• See for yourself by watching Rough Science, which starts on BBC2 on 26 May, at 7.30pm.

Getting stuck into it: Jonathan tries out his camera