LIVERPOOL — The most brilliant minds should be directed to solving Earth’s greatest challenges, such as climate change, says Sir David King. The former UK chief scientist will use his presidential address at the BA Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers. He will suggest that less time and money is spent on endeavours such as space exploration and particle physics. He says population growth and poverty in Africa also demand attention. ‘The challenges of the 21st Century are qualitatively different from anything that we’ve had to face up to before,’ he told reporters before the opening of the festival, which is being held this year in Liverpool. ‘This requires a re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society’s inner attitudes towards science and technology.’ Huge expense Sir David’s remarks will be controversial because they are being made just as the UK is about to celebrate its participation in the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest physics experiment. The Collider, built at the Cern laboratory under the Swiss-French border, is starting full operations this Wednesday. What if Tim Berners Lee had been working in […]