The Royal Society will feature regularly in the news this year as it celebrates its 350th birthday.

Cambridge University astrophysicist Martin Rees is president of the Royal Society, so it was fascinating to watch him explain in an exclusive video interview why President Obama was right to cancel manned US missions to the Moon.

Wonder what Gil Scott-Heron would have made of it.

I reckon that if we really wanted to know what other life-forms exist ‘out there’ we might first spend a little more time checking out what is here and perhaps be a little more hesitant in destroying so many unexplored habitats on Earth. Not to mention spending a little more time and money on investigating our oceans.