Titanium ( ) is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant (including sea water, aqua regia and chlorine) transition metal with a silver color.

Titanium was discovered in Cornwall, Great Britain, by William Gregor in 1791 and named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth for the Titans of Greek mythology. The element occurs within a number of mineral deposits, principally rutile and ilmenite, which are widely distributed in the Earth's crust and lithosphere, and it is found in almost all living things, rocks, water bodies, and soils. The metal is extracted from its principal mineral ores via the Kroll process or the Hunter process. Its most common compound, titanium dioxide, is a popular photocatalyst and is used in the manufacture of white pigments. Other compounds include titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄), a component of smoke screens and catalysts; and titanium trichloride (TiCl₃), which is used as a catalyst in the production of polypropylene.

Titanium can be alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium, molybdenum, among other elements, to produce strong lightweight alloys for aerospace (jet engines, missiles, and spacecraft), military, industrial process (chemicals and petro-chemicals, desalination plants, pulp, and paper), automotive, agri-food, medical prostheses, orthopedic implants, dental and endodontic instruments and files, dental implants, sporting goods, jewelry, mobile phones, and other applications.

The two most useful properties of the metal form are corrosion resistance and the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal. In its unalloyed condition, titanium is as strong as some steels, but 45% lighter. There are two allotropic forms and five naturally occurring isotopes of this element, ⁴⁶Ti through ⁵⁰Ti, with ⁴⁸Ti being the most abundant (73.8%). Titanium's properties are chemically and physically similar to zirconium, because both of them have the same number of valence electrons and are in the same group in the periodic table.

Characteristics

Physical properties

A metallic element, titanium is recognized for its high strength-to-weight ratio. It is a strong metal with low density that is quite ductile (especially in an oxygen-free environment), lustrous, and metallic-white in color. The relatively high melting point (more than 1,650 °C or 3,000 °F) makes it useful as a refractory metal. It is paramagnetic and has fairly low electrical and thermal conductivity.

Commercial (99.2% pure) grades of titanium have ultimate tensile strength of about 63,000 psi (434 MPa), equal to that of common, low-grade steel alloys, but are 45% lighter. Titanium is 60% more dense than aluminium, but more than twice as strong as the most commonly used 6061-T6 aluminium alloy. Certain titanium alloys (e.g., Beta C) achieve tensile strengths of over . However, titanium loses strength when heated above .

It is fairly hard (although not as hard as some grades of heat-treated steel), non-magnetic and a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Machining requires precautions, as the material will soften and gall if sharp tools and proper cooling methods are not used. Like those made from steel, titanium structures have a fatigue limit which guarantees longevity in some applications. Titanium alloys specific stiffnesses are also usually not as good as other materials such as aluminium alloys and carbon fiber, so it is used less for structures which require high rigidity.

The metal is a dimorphic allotrope whose hexagonal alpha form changes into a body-centered cubic (lattice) β form at . The specific heat of the alpha form increases dramatically as it is heated to this transition temperature but then falls and remains fairly constant for the β form regardless of temperature. Similar to zirconium and hafnium, an additional omega phase exists, which is thermodynamically stable at high pressures, but is metastable at ambient pressures. This phase is usually hexagonal (''ideal'') or trigonal (''distorted'') and can be viewed as being due to a soft longitudinal acoustic phonon of the β phase causing collapse of (111) planes of atoms.

Chemical properties

The most noted chemical property of titanium is its excellent resistance to corrosion; it is almost as resistant as platinum, capable of withstanding attack by dilute sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid as well as chlorine gas, chloride solutions, and most organic acids. However, it is soluble in concentrated acids. The Pourbaix diagram in the image shows that titanium is actually thermodynamically a very reactive metal.

However, it is slow to react with water and air, because it forms a passive and protective oxide coating that protects it from further reaction. When it first forms, this protective layer is only 1–2 nm thick but continues to slowly grow; reaching a thickness of 25 nm in four years.

Titanium readily reacts with oxygen at in air, and at in pure oxygen, forming titanium dioxide. As a result, the metal cannot be melted in open air since it burns before the melting point is reached. Melting is only possible in an inert atmosphere or in a vacuum. At , it combines with chlorine. It also reacts with the other halogens and absorbs hydrogen.

Titanium is one of the few elements that burns in pure nitrogen gas, reacting at to form titanium nitride, which causes embrittlement.

Experiments have shown that natural titanium becomes radioactive after it is bombarded with deuterons, emitting mainly positrons and hard gamma rays.

Compounds

The +4 oxidation state dominates titanium chemistry, but compounds in the +3 oxidation state are also common. Because of this high oxidation state, many titanium compounds have a high degree of covalent bonding.

Star sapphires and rubies get their asterism from the titanium dioxide impurities present in them. Titanates are compounds made with titanium dioxide. Barium titanate has piezoelectric properties, thus making it possible to use it as a transducer in the interconversion of sound and electricity. Esters of titanium are formed by the reaction of alcohols and titanium tetrachloride and are used to waterproof fabrics.

Titanium nitride (TiN), having a hardness equivalent to sapphire and carborundum (9.0 on the Mohs Scale), is often used to coat cutting tools, such as drill bits. It also finds use as a gold-colored decorative finish, and as a barrier metal in semiconductor fabrication.

Titanium tetrachloride (titanium(IV) chloride, TiCl₄, sometimes called "tickle") is a colorless liquid which is used as an intermediate in the manufacture of titanium dioxide for paint. It is widely used in organic chemistry as a Lewis acid, for example in the Mukaiyama aldol condensation. Titanium also forms a lower chloride, titanium(III) chloride (TiCl₃), which is used as a reducing agent.

Titanocene dichloride is an important catalyst for carbon-carbon bond formation. Titanium isopropoxide is used for Sharpless epoxidation. Other compounds include titanium bromide (used in metallurgy, superalloys, and high-temperature electrical wiring and coatings) and titanium carbide (found in high-temperature cutting tools and coatings).

Occurrence

! Producer !! thousands of tonnes !! % of total |- |||1291.0||30.6 |- |||850.0||20.1 |- |||767.0||18.2 |- |||382.9||9.1 |- |||357.0||8.5 |- |''Other countries''||''573.1''||''13.6'' |- |Total world||4221.0||100.0 |} Because of rounding, values do not sum to 100%.

Titanium is always bonded to other elements in nature. It is the ninth-most abundant element in the Earth's crust (0.63% by mass) and the seventh-most abundant metal. It is present in most igneous rocks and in sediments derived from them (as well as in living things and natural bodies of water). Of the 801 types of igneous rocks analyzed by the United States Geological Survey, 784 contained titanium. Its proportion in soils is approximately 0.5 to 1.5%.

It is widely distributed and occurs primarily in the minerals anatase, brookite, ilmenite, perovskite, rutile, titanite (sphene), as well in many iron ores. Of these minerals, only rutile and ilmenite have any economic importance, yet even they are difficult to find in high concentrations. Significant titanium-bearing ilmenite deposits exist in western Australia, Canada, China, India, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, and Ukraine. Large quantities of rutile are also mined in North America and South Africa and help contribute to the annual production of 90,000 tonnes of the metal and 4.3 million tonnes of titanium dioxide. Total reserves of titanium are estimated to exceed 600 million tonnes.

Titanium is contained in meteorites and has been detected in the sun and in M-type stars; the coolest type of star with a surface temperature of . Rocks brought back from the moon during the Apollo 17 mission are composed of 12.1% TiO₂. It is also found in coal ash, plants, and even the human body.

Isotopes

Naturally occurring titanium is composed of 5 stable isotopes: ⁴⁶Ti, ⁴⁷Ti, ⁴⁸Ti, ⁴⁹Ti, and ⁵⁰Ti, with ⁴⁸Ti being the most abundant (73.8% natural abundance). Eleven radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable being ⁴⁴Ti with a half-life of 63 years, ⁴⁵Ti with a half-life of 184.8 minutes, ⁵¹Ti with a half-life of 5.76 minutes, and ⁵²Ti with a half-life of 1.7 minutes. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 33 seconds and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than half a second.

The isotopes of titanium range in atomic weight from 39.99 u (⁴⁰Ti) to 57.966 u (⁵⁸Ti). The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, ⁴⁸Ti, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay products before ⁴⁸Ti are element 21 (scandium) isotopes and the primary products after are element 23 (vanadium) isotopes.

History

Titanium was discovered included in a mineral in Cornwall, United Kingdom, in 1791 by amateur geologist and pastor William Gregor, then vicar of Creed parish. He recognized the presence of a new element in ilmenite when he found black sand by a stream in the nearby parish of Manaccan and noticed the sand was attracted by a magnet. Analysis of the sand determined the presence of two metal oxides; iron oxide (explaining the attraction to the magnet) and 45.25% of a white metallic oxide he could not identify. Gregor, realizing that the unidentified oxide contained a metal that did not match the properties of any known element, reported his findings to the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall and in the German science journal ''Crell's Annalen''.

Around the same time, Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein produced a similar substance, but could not identify it. The oxide was independently rediscovered in 1795 by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in rutile from Hungary. Klaproth found that it contained a new element and named it for the Titans of Greek mythology. After hearing about Gregor's earlier discovery, he obtained a sample of ''manaccanite'' and confirmed it contained titanium.

The processes required to extract titanium from its various ores are laborious and costly; it is not possible to reduce in the normal manner, by heating in the presence of carbon, because that produces titanium carbide. Pure metallic titanium (99.9%) was first prepared in 1910 by Matthew A. Hunter at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by heating TiCl₄ with sodium at 700–800 °C in the Hunter process. Titanium metal was not used outside the laboratory until 1932 when William Justin Kroll proved that it could be produced by reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄) with calcium. Eight years later he refined this process by using magnesium and even sodium in what became known as the Kroll process. Although research continues into more efficient and cheaper processes (e.g., FFC Cambridge), the Kroll process is still used for commercial production.

Titanium of very high purity was made in small quantities when Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer discovered the iodide, or crystal bar, process in 1925, by reacting with iodine and decomposing the formed vapors over a hot filament to pure metal.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet Union pioneered the use of titanium in military and submarine applications (Alfa Class and Mike Class) as part of programs related to the Cold War. Starting in the early 1950s, titanium began to be used extensively for military aviation purposes, particularly in high-performance jets, starting with aircraft such as the F100 Super Sabre and Lockheed A-12.

In the USA, the Department of Defense realized the strategic importance of the metal and supported early efforts of commercialization. Throughout the period of the Cold War, titanium was considered a Strategic Material by the U.S. government, and a large stockpile of titanium sponge was maintained by the Defense National Stockpile Center, which was finally depleted in 2005. Today, the world's largest producer, Russian-based VSMPO-Avisma, is estimated to account for about 29% of the world market share.

In 2006, the U.S. Defense Agency awarded $5.7 million to a two-company consortium to develop a new process for making titanium metal powder. Under heat and pressure, the powder can be used to create strong, lightweight items ranging from armor plating to components for the aerospace, transportation, and chemical processing industries.

Production and fabrication

The processing of titanium metal occurs in 4 major steps: reduction of titanium ore into "sponge", a porous form; melting of sponge, or sponge plus a master alloy to form an ingot; primary fabrication, where an ingot is converted into general mill products such as billet, bar, plate, sheet, strip, and tube; and secondary fabrication of finished shapes from mill products.

Because the metal reacts with oxygen at high temperatures it cannot be produced by reduction of its dioxide. Titanium metal is therefore produced commercially by the Kroll process, a complex and expensive batch process. (The relatively high market value of titanium is mainly due to its processing, which sacrifices another expensive metal, magnesium.) In the Kroll process, the oxide is first converted to chloride through carbochlorination, whereby chlorine gas is passed over red-hot rutile or ilmenite in the presence of carbon to make TiCl₄. This is condensed and purified by fractional distillation and then reduced with 800 °C molten magnesium in an argon atmosphere.

A more recently developed method, the FFC Cambridge process, may eventually replace the Kroll process. This method uses titanium dioxide powder (which is a refined form of rutile) as feedstock to make the end product which is either a powder or sponge. If mixed oxide powders are used, the product is an alloy manufactured at a much lower cost than the conventional multi-step melting process. The FFC Cambridge process may render titanium a less rare and expensive material for the aerospace industry and the luxury goods market, and could be seen in many products currently manufactured using aluminium and specialist grades of steel.

Common titanium alloys are made by reduction. For example, cuprotitanium (rutile with copper added is reduced), ferrocarbon titanium (ilmenite reduced with coke in an electric furnace), and manganotitanium (rutile with manganese or manganese oxides) are reduced. :2 FeTiO₃ + 7 Cl₂ + 6 C → 2 TiCl₄ + 2 FeCl₃ + 6 CO (900 °C) :TiCl₄ + 2 Mg → 2 MgCl₂ + Ti (1100 °C)

About 50 grades of titanium and titanium alloys are designated and currently used, although only a couple of dozen are readily available commercially. The ASTM International recognizes 31 Grades of titanium metal and alloys, of which Grades 1 through 4 are commercially pure (unalloyed). These four are distinguished by their varying degrees of tensile strength, as a function of oxygen content, with Grade 1 being the most ductile (lowest tensile strength with an oxygen content of 0.18%), and Grade 4 the least (highest tensile strength with an oxygen content of 0.40%). The remaining grades are alloys, each designed for specific purposes, be it ductility, strength, hardness, electrical resistivity, creep resistance, resistance to corrosion from specific media, or a combination thereof.

The grades covered by ASTM and other alloys are also produced to meet Aerospace and Military specifications (SAE-AMS, MIL-T), ISO standards, and country-specific specifications, as well as proprietary end-user specifications for aerospace, military, medical, and industrial applications.

In terms of fabrication, all welding of titanium must be done in an inert atmosphere of argon or helium in order to shield it from contamination with atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, or hydrogen. Contamination will cause a variety of conditions, such as embrittlement, which will reduce the integrity of the assembly welds and lead to joint failure. Commercially pure flat product (sheet, plate) can be formed readily, but processing must take into account the fact that the metal has a "memory" and tends to spring back. This is especially true of certain high-strength alloys. Titanium cannot be soldered without first pre-plating it in a metal that is solderable. The metal can be machined using the same equipment and via the same processes as stainless steel.

Applications

Titanium is used in steel as an alloying element (ferro-titanium) to reduce grain size and as a deoxidizer, and in stainless steel to reduce carbon content. Titanium is often alloyed with aluminium (to refine grain size), vanadium, copper (to harden), iron, manganese, molybdenum, and with other metals. Applications for titanium mill products (sheet, plate, bar, wire, forgings, castings) can be found in industrial, aerospace, recreational, and emerging markets. Powdered titanium is used in pyrotechnics as a source of bright-burning particles.

Pigments, additives and coatings

About 95% of titanium ore extracted from the Earth is destined for refinement into titanium dioxide (), an intensely white permanent pigment used in paints, paper, toothpaste, and plastics. It is also used in cement, in gemstones, as an optical opacifier in paper, and a strengthening agent in graphite composite fishing rods and golf clubs.

powder is chemically inert, resists fading in sunlight, and is very opaque: this allows it to impart a pure and brilliant white color to the brown or gray chemicals that form the majority of household plastics. In nature, this compound is found in the minerals anatase, brookite, and rutile. Paint made with titanium dioxide does well in severe temperatures, is somewhat self-cleaning, and stands up to marine environments. Pure titanium dioxide has a very high index of refraction and an optical dispersion higher than diamond. In addition to being a very important pigment, titanium dioxide is also used in sunscreens due to its ability to protect skin by itself. Recently, titanium oxide has been put to use in air purifiers (as a filter coating), or in film used to coat windows on buildings so that when titanium oxide becomes exposed to UV light (either solar or artificial) and moisture in the air, reactive redox species like hydroxyl radicals are produced so that they can purify the air or keep window surfaces clean.

Aerospace and marine

Due to their high tensile strength to density ratio, high corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, high crack resistance, and ability to withstand moderately high temperatures without creeping, titanium alloys are used in aircraft, armor plating, naval ships, spacecraft, and missiles. For these applications titanium alloyed with aluminium, vanadium, and other elements is used for a variety of components including critical structural parts, fire walls, landing gear, exhaust ducts (helicopters), and hydraulic systems. In fact, about two thirds of all titanium metal produced is used in aircraft engines and frames. The SR-71 "Blackbird" was one of the first aircraft to make extensive use of titanium within its structure, paving the way for its use in modern military and commercial aircraft. An estimated 59 metric tons (130,000 pounds) are used in the Boeing 777, 45 in the Boeing 747, 18 in the Boeing 737, 32 in the Airbus A340, 18 in the Airbus A330, and 12 in the Airbus A320. The Airbus A380 may use 146 metric tons, including about 26 tons in the engines. In engine applications, titanium is used for rotors, compressor blades, hydraulic system components, and nacelles. The titanium 6AL-4V alloy accounts for almost 50% of all alloys used in aircraft applications.

Due to its high corrosion resistance to sea water, titanium is used to make propeller shafts and rigging and in the heat exchangers of desalination plants; in heater-chillers for salt water aquariums, fishing line and leader, and for divers' knives. Titanium is used to manufacture the housings and other components of ocean-deployed surveillance and monitoring devices for scientific and military use. The former Soviet Union developed techniques for making submarines largely out of titanium.

Industrial

Welded titanium pipe and process equipment (heat exchangers, tanks, process vessels, valves) are used in the chemical and petrochemical industries primarily for corrosion resistance. Specific alloys are used in downhole and nickel hydrometallurgy applications due to their high strength (e. g.: titanium Beta C alloy), corrosion resistance, or combination of both. The pulp and paper industry uses titanium in process equipment exposed to corrosive media such as sodium hypochlorite or wet chlorine gas (in the bleachery). Other applications include: ultrasonic welding, wave soldering, and sputtering targets.

Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄), a colorless liquid, is important as an intermediate in the process of making TiO₂ and is also used to produce the Ziegler-Natta catalyst, and is used to iridize glass and because it fumes strongly in moist air it is also used to make smoke screens.

Consumer and architectural

Titanium metal is used in automotive applications, particularly in automobile or motorcycle racing, where weight reduction is critical while maintaining high strength and rigidity. The metal is generally too expensive to make it marketable to the general consumer market, other than high-end products, particularly for the racing/performance market. Late model Corvettes have been available with titanium exhausts.

Titanium is used in many sporting goods: tennis rackets, golf clubs, lacrosse stick shafts; cricket, hockey, lacrosse, and football helmet grills; and bicycle frames and components. Although not a mainstream material for bicycle production, titanium bikes have been used by race teams and adventure cyclists. Titanium alloys are also used in spectacle frames. This results in a rather expensive, but highly durable and long lasting frame which is light in weight and causes no skin allergies. Many backpackers use titanium equipment, including cookware, eating utensils, lanterns, and tent stakes. Though slightly more expensive than traditional steel or aluminium alternatives, these titanium products can be significantly lighter without compromising strength. Titanium is also favored for use by farriers, since it is lighter and more durable than steel when formed into horseshoes.

Titanium has occasionally been used in architectural applications: the 40 m (131 foot) memorial to Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space, in Moscow, is made of titanium for the metal's attractive color and association with rocketry. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Cerritos Millennium Library were the first buildings in Europe and North America, respectively, to be sheathed in titanium panels. Other construction uses of titanium sheathing include the Frederic C. Hamilton Building in Denver, Colorado and the 107 m (350 foot) Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow.

Because of its superior strength and light weight when compared to other metals traditionally used in firearms (steel, stainless steel, and aluminium), and advances in metalworking techniques, the use of titanium has become more widespread in the manufacture of firearms. Primary uses include pistol frames and revolver cylinders. For these same reasons, it is also used in the body of laptop computers (for example, in Apple's PowerBook line).

Some upmarket categories of tools made to be lightweight and corrosion-resistant, such as shovels and flashlights, are made of titanium or titanium alloys as well.

Jewelry

Because of its durability, titanium has become more popular for designer jewelry (particularly, titanium rings). Its inertness makes it a good choice for those with allergies or those who will be wearing the jewelry in environments such as swimming pools. Titanium is also alloyed with gold to produce an alloy that can be marketed as 24-carat gold, as the 1% of alloyed Ti is insufficient to require a lesser mark. The resulting alloy is roughly the hardness of 14-carat gold and thus is more durable than a pure 24-carat gold item would be.

Titanium's durability, light weight, dent- and corrosion- resistance makes it useful in the production of watch cases. Some artists work with titanium to produce artworks such as sculptures, decorative objects and furniture.

The inertness and ability to be attractively colored makes titanium a popular metal for use in body piercing. Titanium may be anodized to produce various colors, which varies the thickness of the surface oxide layer and causes interference fringes.

Medical

Because it is biocompatible (non-toxic and is not rejected by the body), titanium is used in a gamut of medical applications including surgical implements and implants, such as hip balls and sockets (joint replacement) that can stay in place for up to 20 years. The titanium is often alloyed with about 4% aluminium or 6% Al and 4% vanadium.

Titanium has the inherent property to osseointegrate, enabling use in dental implants that can remain in place for over 30 years. This property is also useful for orthopedic implant applications. These benefit from titanium's lower modulus of elasticity (Young's modulus) to more closely match that of the bone that such devices are intended to repair. As a result, skeletal loads are more evenly shared between bone and implant, leading to a lower incidence of bone degradation due to stress shielding and periprosthetic bone fractures which occur at the boundaries of orthopedic implants. However, titanium alloys' stiffness is still more than twice that of bone so adjacent bone bears a greatly reduced load and may deteriorate.

Since titanium is non-ferromagnetic, patients with titanium implants can be safely examined with magnetic resonance imaging (convenient for long-term implants). Preparing titanium for implantation in the body involves subjecting it to a high-temperature plasma arc which removes the surface atoms, exposing fresh titanium that is instantly oxidized.

Titanium is also used for the surgical instruments used in image-guided surgery, as well as wheelchairs, crutches, and any other products where high strength and low weight are desirable.

Precautions

Titanium is non-toxic even in large doses and does not play any natural role inside the human body. An estimated 0.8 milligrams of titanium is ingested by humans each day but most passes through without being absorbed. It does, however, have a tendency to bio-accumulate in tissues that contain silica. An unknown mechanism in plants may use titanium to stimulate the production of carbohydrates and encourage growth. This may explain why most plants contain about 1 part per million (ppm) of titanium, food plants have about 2 ppm, and horsetail and nettle contain up to 80 ppm.

As a powder or in the form of metal shavings, titanium metal poses a significant fire hazard and, when heated in air, an explosion hazard. Water and carbon dioxide-based methods to extinguish fires are ineffective on burning titanium; Class D dry powder fire fighting agents must be used instead.

When used in the production or handling of chlorine, care must be taken to use titanium only in locations where it will not be exposed to dry chlorine gas which can result in a titanium/chlorine fire. A fire hazard exists even when titanium is used in wet chlorine due to possible unexpected drying brought about by extreme weather conditions.

Titanium can catch fire when a fresh, non-oxidized surface comes in contact with liquid oxygen. Such surfaces can appear when the oxidized surface is struck with a hard object, or when a mechanical strain causes the emergence of a crack. This poses the possible limitation for its use in liquid oxygen systems, such as those found in the aerospace industry.

See also

Titanium in Africa

Titanium alloy

Titanium coating

Titanium Man

Titanium Metals Corporation

Titanium rings

VSMPO-AVISMA

References

Bibliography

External links

''Titanium: Our Next Major Metal'', October 1950, Popular Science one of first general public detailed articles on Titanium

A Cleaner, Cheaper Route to Titanium

International Titanium Association

Metallurgy of Titanium and its Alloys, Cambridge University

World Production of Titanium Concentrates, by Country

Truth in Sparks: Titanium or Plain Ol' Steel? Popular Science Magazine

Metal of the gods

Category:Chemical elements Category:Transition metals Category:Titanium Category:Pyrotechnic fuels Category:Aerospace materials

af:Titaan (element) ar:تيتانيوم an:Titanio az:Titan bn:টাইটানিয়াম be:Тытан, хімічны элемент be-x-old:Тытан bs:Titanijum bg:Титан (елемент) ca:Titani cv:Титан (элемент) cs:Titan (prvek) co:Titaniu cy:Titaniwm da:Titan (grundstof) de:Titan (Element) nv:Béésh doo Ńdiniichxíihii et:Titaan el:Τιτάνιο es:Titanio eo:Titano (elemento) eu:Titanio fa:تیتانیم hif:Titanium fr:Titane fur:Titani ga:Tíotáiniam gv:Çhitaanium gl:Titanio hak:Thai xal:Титан ko:타이타늄 haw:Titanium hy:Տիտան hi:टाइटानियम hr:Titanij io:Titanio id:Titanium is:Títan it:Titanio he:טיטניום jv:Titanium kn:ಟೈಟೇನಿಯಮ್ kk:Титан sw:Titani kv:Титан (элемент) ht:Titàn ku:Tîtan mrj:Титан (элемент) la:Titanium lv:Titāns lb:Titan (Element) lt:Titanas lij:Titanio jbo:jinmrtitani hu:Titán (elem) ml:ടൈറ്റാനിയം mr:टायटॅनियम ms:Titanium my:တိုင်‌တေနီယမ် nl:Titanium new:टाइटानियम ja:チタン no:Titan (grunnstoff) nn:Grunnstoffet titan oc:Titani uz:Titan (unsur) pa:ਟਾਈਟੇਨੀਅਮ pnb:ٹائٹینیم nds:Titan (Element) pl:Tytan (pierwiastek) pt:Titânio ro:Titan qu:Titanyu ru:Титан (элемент) stq:Titan (Element) scn:Titaniu simple:Titanium sk:Titán sl:Titan (element) sr:Титанијум sh:Titanij fi:Titaani sv:Titan tl:Titanyo ta:டைட்டேனியம் tt:Титан te:టైటానియం th:ไทเทเนียม tr:Titanyum uk:Титан (хімічний елемент) ug:تىتان vi:Titani war:Titanyo yi:טיטאניום yo:Titanium zh-yue:鈦 zh:钛

name	Sir David Attenborough
birth date	May 08, 1926
birth place	Isleworth, London, England
residence	Richmond, London
nationality	British
alma mater
occupation
title
spouse	Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel (m. 1950–1997, her death)
children
footnotes	}}

Sir David Frederick Attenborough () OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA (born 8 May 1926 in London, England) is a broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the respected face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine ''Life'' series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

He is a younger brother of director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough.

Early life and family

Attenborough grew up in College House on the campus of the University of Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal. He is the middle of three sons (his elder brother, Richard, became an actor/film director and his younger brother, John Michael Attenborough, an executive at Alfa Romeo). During World War II his parents also adopted two Jewish refugee girls from Europe.

Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones and other natural specimens. He received encouragement in this pursuit at age seven, when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his "museum". A few years later, one of his adoptive sisters gave him a piece of amber filled with prehistoric creatures; some 50 years later, it would be the focus of his programme ''The Amber Time Machine''.

Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and then won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945, where he studied geology and zoology and obtained a degree in Natural Sciences. In 1947, he was called up for National Service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth.

In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel; the marriage lasted until her death in 1997. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan.

His son, Robert Attenborough, is a senior lecturer in Bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra.

First years at BBC

After leaving the Navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became disillusioned with the work, however, and in 1950, he applied for a job as a radio talks producer with the BBC. Although he was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted the interest of Mary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service. Attenborough, like most Britons at that time, did not own a television, and he had seen only one programme in his life. However, he accepted Adams' offer of a three-month training course, and in 1952, he joined the BBC full time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big, he became a producer for the Talks Department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz show ''Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?'' and ''Song Hunter'', a series about folk music presented by Alan Lomax.

Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part series ''The Pattern of Animals''. The studio-bound programme featured animals from London Zoo, with the naturalist Sir Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, aposematism and courtship displays. Through this programme, Attenborough met Jack Lester, the curator of the zoo's reptile house, and they decided to make a series about an animal-collecting expedition. The result was ''Zoo Quest'', first broadcast in 1954, which Attenborough presented at short notice, due to Lester being taken ill.

In 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Bristol. Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wishing to move from London where he and his young family were settled. Instead he formed his own department, the Travel and Exploration Unit, which allowed him to continue to front the ''Zoo Quest'' programmes as well as produce other documentaries, notably the ''Travellers’ Tales'' and ''Adventure'' series.

In the early 1960s, Attenborough resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC to study for a postgraduate degree in social anthropology at the London School of Economics, interweaving his study with further filming. However, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC as Controller of BBC Two before he could finish the degree.

BBC administration

Attenborough became the Controller of BBC Two in March 1965, but had a clause inserted in his contract that would allow him to continue making programmes on an occasional basis. Later the same year, he filmed elephants in Tanzania, and in 1969, he made a three-part series on the cultural history of Bali. For the 1971 film ''A Blank on the Map'', he joined the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley in New Guinea to seek out an uncontacted tribe.

BBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as Controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's viewing. Programmes he commissioned included ''Man Alive'', ''Call My Bluff'', ''Chronicle'', ''Life'', ''One Pair of Eyes'', ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'', ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' and ''The Money Programme''. When BBC Two became the first British channel to broadcast in colour in 1967, Attenborough took advantage by introducing televised snooker, as well as bringing rugby league to British television on a regular basis via the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy.

One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the history of Western art, to show off the quality of the new UHF colour television service that BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, ''Civilisation'' set the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries, which were informally known as "tombstone" or "sledgehammer" projects. Others followed, including Jacob Bronowski's ''The Ascent of Man'' (also commissioned by Attenborough), and Alistair Cooke's ''America''. Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series. He shared his idea with Chris Parsons, a producer at the Natural History Unit, who came up with the title ''Life on Earth'' and returned to Bristol to start planning the series. Attenborough harboured a strong desire to present the series himself, but this would not be possible so long as he remained in a management post.

In 1969, Attenborough was promoted to Director of Programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels. His tasks, which included agreeing budgets, attending board meetings and firing staff, were now far removed from the business of filming programmes. When Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position of Director General of the BBC in 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that he had no appetite for the job. Early the following year, he left his post to return to full-time programme making, leaving him free to write and present the planned natural history epic.

Return to broadcasting

After his resignation, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and immediately started work on his next project, a pre-arranged trip to Indonesia with a crew from the Natural History Unit. It resulted in the 1973 series ''Eastwards with Attenborough'', which was similar in tone to the earlier ''Zoo Quests'' but without the animal-collecting element.

On his return, he began to work on the scripts for ''Life on Earth''. Due to the scale of his ambition, the BBC decided to partner with an American network to secure the necessary funding. While the negotiations were proceeding he worked on a number of other television projects. He presented a series on tribal art (''The Tribal Eye'', 1975) and another on the voyages of discovery (''The Explorers'', 1975). He also presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled ''Fabulous Animals'' (1975), which featured mythical creatures such as the griffin and kraken. Eventually, the BBC signed a co-production deal with Turner Broadcasting and ''Life on Earth'' moved into production in 1976.

"Life" series

Beginning with ''Life on Earth'' in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series also established many of the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of the scientific community, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes. In Rwanda, for example, Attenborough and his crew were granted privileged access to film Dian Fossey's research group of mountain gorillas. Innovation was another factor in ''Life on Earth'''s success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were hitherto unfilmed. Computerised airline schedules, which had only recently been introduced, enabled the series to be elaborately devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents mid-sentence. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he consciously restricted his pieces to camera to give his subjects top billing.

The success of ''Life on Earth'' prompted the BBC to consider a follow-up, and five years later, ''The Living Planet'' was screened. This time, Attenborough built his series around the theme of ecology, the adaptations of livings things to their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, ''The Trials of Life'' completed the original "Life" trilogy, looking at animal behaviour through the different stages of life. The series drew strong reactions from the viewing public for its sequences of killer whales hunting sea lions on a Patagonian beach and chimpanzees hunting and violently killing a colobus monkey.

In the 1990s, Attenborough continued to use the "Life" moniker for a succession of authored documentaries. In 1993, he presented ''Life in the Freezer'', the first television series to survey the natural history of Antarctica. Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver five hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result, ''The Private Life of Plants'' (1995), showed plants as dynamic organisms by using time-lapse photography to speed up their growth.

Prompted by an enthusiastic ornithologist at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to the animal kingdom and in particular, birds. As he was neither an obsessive twitcher, nor a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified to make ''The Life of Birds'' (1998) on the theme of behaviour. The order of the remaining "Life" series was dictated by developments in camera technology. For ''The Life of Mammals'' (2002), low-light and infrared cameras were deployed to reveal the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a number of memorable two shots of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, a blue whale and a grizzly bear. Advances in macro photography made it possible to capture natural behaviour of very small creatures for the first time, and in 2005, ''Life in the Undergrowth'' introduced audiences to the world of invertebrates.

At this point, Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants — only reptiles and amphibians were missing. When ''Life in Cold Blood'' was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction of completing the set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia called ''Life on Land''. In an interview that year, Attenborough was asked to sum up his achievement, and responded:

However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that his forthcoming ''First Life'' — dealing with evolutionary history before ''Life on Earth'' — should also be included within the "Life" series. In the documentary ''Attenborough's Journey'' he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working on it, really completes the set."

Other documentaries

Alongside the "Life" series, Attenborough has continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in the natural history genre. He wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of the Mediterranean basin, ''The First Eden'', in 1987. Two years later, he demonstrated his passion for fossils in ''Lost Worlds Vanished Lives''.

Attenborough narrated every episode of ''Wildlife on One'', a BBC One wildlife series which ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005. At its peak, it drew a weekly audience of eight to ten million, and the 1987 episode "Meerkats United" was voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers. He has also narrated over 50 episodes of ''Natural World'', BBC Two's flagship wildlife series. (Its forerunner, ''The World About Us'', was created by Attenborough in 1969, as a vehicle for colour television.) In 1997, he narrated the ''BBC Wildlife Specials'', each focussing on a charismatic species, and screened to mark the Natural History Unit's 40th anniversary.

As a writer and narrator, he continued to collaborate with the BBC Natural History Unit in the new millennium. Alastair Fothergill, a senior producer with whom Attenborough had worked on ''The Trials of Life'' and ''Life in the Freezer'', was making ''The Blue Planet'' (2001), the Unit's first comprehensive series on marine life. He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to camera through diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films. The same team reunited for ''Planet Earth'' (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television, and the first BBC wildlife series to be shot in high definition. In 2009, Attenborough wrote and narrated ''Life'', a ten-part series focussing on extraordinary animal behaviour, and narrated ''Nature's Great Events'', which showed how seasonal changes trigger major natural spectacles.

By the turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries were adopting a more overtly environmentalist stance. In ''State of the Planet'' (2000), he used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists and conservationists to assess the impact of man's activities on the natural world. He later turned to the issues of global warming (''The Truth about Climate Change'', 2006) and human population growth (''How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?'', 2009). He also contributed a programme which highlighted the plight of endangered species to the BBC's ''Saving Planet Earth'' project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.

Interestingly, although Attenborough's documentaries have attained immense popularity in the United States, several have never been made available on DVD in NTSC format, most notably those that cast doubt upon conservative religious or political positions. These include:

''Life on Earth'', which examines the evidence for evolution.

''State of the Planet''

''The Truth About Climate Change''

''First Life'', which examines the origin of life.

Current projects

Attenborough continues to work into his ninth decade, and is currently involved in a number of projects for the BBC and for Sky.

He is writing and presenting ''Frozen Planet'', a major new series for BBC One which examines the impact of a warming climate on the people and wildlife of the polar regions. He has also recently completed two projects for BBC Two. ''Madagascar'' (which first aired weekly between the 9 to 23 February 2011) a three-part series giving an overview of Madagascar's unique wildlife. The accompanying documentary ''Attenborough and the Giant Egg'' (which first aired on the 2nd of March 2011) features the elephant bird egg which Attenborough discovered on his first filming expedition to the island in the 1960s.

Attenborough is also forging a new partnership with Sky, working on documentaries for the broadcaster's new 3D network, Sky 3D. Their first collaboration is ''Flying Monsters 3D'', a film about pterosaurs which debuted on Christmas Day 2010. A second film, ''Penguin Island 3D'', has also been announced. Both are produced by Atlantic Productions, the company behind Attenborough's 2010 series ''First Life''.

Other work

From 1983, Attenborough worked on two environmentally themed musicals with the WWF and writers Peter Rose and Anne Conlon. ''Yanomamo'' was the first, about the Amazon rainforest, and the second, ''Ocean World'', premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in 1991. They were both narrated by Attenborough on their national tour, and recorded on to audio cassette. ''Ocean World'' was also filmed for Channel 4 and later released.

In 1990, he highlighted the case of Mahjoub Sharif as part of the BBC's ''Prisoners of Conscience'' series.

In January 2009, the BBC commissioned Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature. Entitled ''David Attenborough's Life Stories'', they are broadcast on Radio 4 in the Friday night slot vacated by Alistair Cooke's ''Letter from America''. Part of Radio 4's ''A Point of View'' strand, the talks are also available as podcasts.

He appeared in the 2009 Children's Prom at the BBC Promenade Concerts and in the Last Night of the Proms on 12 September 2009, playing a floor polisher in Sir Malcolm Arnold's "A Grand, Grand Overture" (after which he was "shot" by Rory Bremner, who was playing the gun).

Attenborough also serves on the advisory board of ''BBC Wildlife'' magazine.

Achievements, awards and recognition

{| style="float:right; background:#f9f9f9; border:1px solid darkgrey;" |- !align="left"|Styles and honours |- |

Mr David Attenborough (1926–1974)

Mr David Attenborough CBE (1974–1983)

Mr David Attenborough CBE FRS (1983–1985)

Sir David Attenborough CBE FRS (1985–1991)

Sir David Attenborough CVO CBE FRS (1991–1996)

Sir David Attenborough CH CVO CBE FRS (1996–2005)

Sir David Attenborough OM CH CVO CBE FRS (2005–)

|}

Attenborough's contribution to broadcasting and wildlife film-making has brought him international recognition. He has been called "the great communicator, the peerless educator" and "the greatest broadcaster of our time". His programmes are often cited as an example of what public service broadcasting should be, even by critics of the BBC, and has influenced a generation of wildlife film-makers.

Honorary titles

In 2010 it was reported that Attenborough has been given 29 honorary degrees by British universities, more than any other person. In 1980, he was honoured by the Open University, with whom he has had a close association throughout his career. He also has honorary Doctor of Science awards from the University of Cambridge (1984) and the University of Oxford (1988). In 2006, the two eldest Attenborough brothers returned to their home city to receive the title of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester, "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University." David Attenborough was previously awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the university in 1970, and was made an honorary Freeman of the City of Leicester in 1990.

Attenborough has received the title Honorary Fellow from Clare College, Cambridge (1980), the Zoological Society of London (1998), the Linnean Society (1999), the Institute of Biology (2000) and the Society of Antiquaries (2007).

Recognition

Attenborough has featured as the subject of a number of BBC television programmes. ''Life on Air'' (2002) examined the legacy of his work and ''Attenborough the Controller'' (2002) focused on his time in charge of BBC Two. He also featured prominently in ''The Way We Went Wild'' (2004), a series about natural history television presenters, and ''100 Years of Wildlife Films'' (2007), a special programme marking the centenary of the nature documentary. In 2006, British television viewers were asked to vote for their ''Favourite Attenborough Moments'' for a UKTV poll to coincide with the broadcaster's 80th birthday. The winning clip showed Attenborough observing the mimicry skills of the superb lyrebird.

Attenborough was named as the most trusted celebrity in Britain in a 2006 Reader's Digest poll,. and the following year he won ''The Culture Show'''s Living Icon Award. He has also been named among the 100 Greatest Britons in a 2002 BBC poll and is one of the top ten "Heroes of Our Time" according to ''New Statesman'' magazine.

He has the distinction of having a number of newly-discovered species and fossils being named in his honour. In 1993, after discovering that the Mesozoic reptile ''Plesiosaurus conybeari'' had not, in fact, been a true plesiosaur, the paleontologist Robert Bakker renamed the species ''Attenborosaurus conybeari''. A fossilised armoured fish discovered at the Gogo Formation, Western Australia in 2008 was given the name ''Materpiscis attenboroughi'', after Attenborough had filmed at the site and highlighted its scientific importance in ''Life on Earth''. The ''Materpiscis'' fossil is believed to be the earliest organism capable of internal fertilisation.

He has also lent his name to a species of Ecuadorian flowering tree, ''Blakea attenboroughi'', one of the world's largest carnivorous plants, ''Nepenthes attenboroughii'', and one of only four species of long-beaked echidna, the critically endangered ''Zaglossus attenboroughi'', discovered by explorer and zoologist Tim Flannery in the Cyclops Mountains of New Guinea in 1998.

In September 2009, London's Natural History Museum opened the Attenborough Studio, part of its Darwin Centre development.

Awards

1970: BAFTA Desmond Davis Award

1974: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

1980: BAFTA Fellowship

1983: Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)

1985: Knighthood

1991: Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) for producing Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas broadcast for a number of years from 1986

1991: Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1996: Companion of Honour (CH) "for services to nature broadcasting"

1998: International Cosmos Prize

2003: Michael Faraday Prize awarded by the Royal Society

2004: Descartes Prize for Outstanding Science Communication Actions

2004: Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum

2005: Order of Merit (OM)

2005: Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest

2006: National Television Awards Special Recognition Award

2006: Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management - Institute Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the public perception and understanding of ecology

2006: The Culture Show British Icon Award

2007: British Naturalists' Association Peter Scott Memorial Award

2009: BAFTA Specialist factual award for ''Life In Cold Blood''

2009: Prince of Asturias Award

2010: Fonseca Prize

2010: Queensland Museum Medal

Views and advocacy

Environmental causes

Attenborough's programmes have often included references to the impact of human society on the natural world. The last episode of ''The Living Planet'', for example, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of the environment and ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite this, he has been criticised for not giving enough prominence to environmental messages. Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do not do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans.

However, his closing message from ''State of the Planet'' was forthright:

The future of life on earth depends on our ability to take action. Many individuals are doing what they can, but real success can only come if there's a change in our societies and our economics and in our politics. I've been lucky in my lifetime to see some of the greatest spectacles that the natural world has to offer. Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations a planet that is healthy, inhabitable by all species.

Attenborough has subsequently become more vocal in his support of environmental causes. In 2005 and 2006, he backed a BirdLife International project to stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats. He gave public support to WWF's campaign to have 220,000 square kilometres of Borneo's rainforest designated a protected area. He also serves as a vice-president of BTCV, vice-president of Fauna and Flora International, president of Butterfly Conservation and president of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. In 2003 he launched an appeal to create a rainforest reserve in Ecuador in memory of Christopher Parsons, the producer of ''Life on Earth'' and a personal friend, who had died the previous year. The same year, he helped to launch ARKive, a global project instigated by Parsons to gather together natural history media into a digital library. ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen, of which Attenborough is a patron. He later became patron of the World Land Trust, and an active supporter. He supported Glyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning permission for a wind turbine in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing in favour of the proposal.

Attenborough has repeatedly said that he considers human overpopulation to be the root cause of many environmental problems. In ''The Life of Mammals'', he made a plea for humans to curb population growth so that other species will not be crowded out. In 2009, he became a patron of Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust), a UK charity advocating sustainable human populations.

He has written and spoken publicly about the fact that, despite past scepticism, he believes the Earth's climate is warming in a way that is cause for concern, and that this can likely be attributed to human activity. He summed up his thoughts at the end of his 2006 documentary "Can We Save Planet Earth?" as follows:

In the past, we didn't understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly, we sowed the wind and now, literally, we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it — individually and collectively, nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe.

In a 2005 interview with ''BBC Wildlife'' magazine, Attenborough said he considered George W. Bush to be the era's top "environmental villain". In 2007, he further elaborated on the USA's consumption of energy in relation to its population. When asked if he thought America to be "the villain of the piece", he responded:

I don't think whole populations are villainous, but Americans are just extraordinarily unaware of all kinds of things. If you live in the middle of that vast continent, with apparently everything your heart could wish for just because you were born there, then why worry? [...] If people lose knowledge, sympathy and understanding of the natural world, they're going to mistreat it and will not ask their politicians to care for it.

Religion and creationism

In a December 2005 interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio Five Live, Attenborough stated that he considers himself an agnostic. When asked whether his observation of the natural world has given him faith in a creator, he generally responds with some version of this story, making reference to the ''Loa loa'' parasitic worm:

My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'.

He has explained that he feels the evidence all over the planet clearly shows evolution to be the best way to explain the diversity of life, and that "as far as I'm concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world."

In a BBC Four interview with Mark Lawson, Attenborough was asked if he at any time had any religious faith. He replied simply, "No." He has also said "It never really occurred to me to believe in God".

In 2002, Attenborough joined an effort by leading clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism in the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive private sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation. In 2009, Attenborough stated that the Book of Genesis, by saying that the world was there for people to dominate, had taught generations that they can "dominate" the environment, and that this has resulted in the devastation of vast areas of the environment. Attenborough further explained to the science journal ''Nature'', "That's why Darwinism, and the fact of evolution, is of great importance, because it is that attitude which has led to the devastation of so much, and we are in the situation that we are in."

Also in early 2009, the BBC broadcast an Attenborough one-hour special, ''Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life''. In reference to the programme, Attenborough stated that "People write to me that evolution is only a theory. Well, it is not a theory. Evolution is as solid a historical fact as you could conceive. Evidence from every quarter. What is a theory is whether natural selection is the mechanism and the only mechanism. That is a theory. But the historical reality that dinosaurs led to birds and mammals produced whales, that's not theory." He strongly opposes creationism and its offshoot "intelligent design", saying that a survey that found a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons was "really terrible".

In March 2009, Attenborough appeared on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross''. Attenborough stated that he felt evolution did not rule out the existence of a God and accepted the title of agnostic saying, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God."

BBC and public service broadcasting

Attenborough is a lifelong supporter of the BBC, public broadcasting and the television licence. He has said:

PSB, to me, is not about selecting individual programme strands here or there, financing them from some outside source and then foisting them upon commercial networks. Public Service Broadcasting, watched by a healthy number of viewers, with programmes financed in proportion to their intrinsic needs and not the size of the audience, can only effectively operate as a network — a network whose aim is to cater for the broadest possible range of interests, popular as well as less popular, a network that measures its success not only by its audience size but by the range of its schedule.

Public service broadcasting is one of the things that distinguishes this country and makes me want to live here. I have spent all my life in it. I would be very distressed if public service broadcasting was weakened. I have been at the BBC since 1952, and know the BBC is constantly being battered. It is today.

If you could demonstrate that the BBC was grossly extravagant there might be a case for saying OK take it away. But in fact the BBC per minute in almost every category is as cheap as you can find anywhere in the world and produces the best quality. If you take the money away, which part of the BBC will you remove? The BBC has gone through swingeing staff cuts. It has been cut to the bone, if you divert licence fee money elsewhere, you cut quality and services. There is always that threat from politicians who will say your licence fee is up for grabs. We will take it. There is a lot of people who want to see the BBC weakened. They talk of this terrible tax of the licence fee. Yet it is the best bargain that is going. Four radio channels and god knows how many TV channels. It is piffling.

There have always been politicians or business people who have wanted to cut the BBC back or stop it saying the sort of things it says. There's always been trouble about the licence and if you dropped your guard you could bet our bottom dollar there'd be plenty of people who'd want to take it away. The licence fee is the basis on which the BBC is based and if you destroy it, broadcasting... becomes a wasteland.

Attenborough expressed regret at some of the changes made to the BBC in the 1990s by Director-General John Birt, who introduced an internal market at the corporation, slimmed and even closed some departments and outsourced much of the corporation’s output to private production companies, in line with the Broadcasting Act 1990. He has said:

There is no question but that Birtism . . . has had some terrible results. On the other hand, the BBC had to change. Now it has to produce programmes no one else can do. Otherwise, forget the licence fee.

The Bristol Unit has suffered along with the rest of the BBC from recent staff cuts. Yet it remains confident in the belief that the BBC will maintain it, in spite of the vagaries of fashion, because the Corporation believes that such programmes deserve a place in the schedules of any broadcaster with pretensions of providing a Public Service. In due course, similar specialist Units were also established in London, in order to produce programmes on archaeology and history, on the arts, on music and on science. They too, at one time, had their successes. But they have not survived as well as the Unit in Bristol. The statutory requirement that a certain percentage of programmes must come from independent producers has reduced in-house production and the Units necessarily shrank proportionately in size. As they dwindled, so the critical mass of their production expertise has diminished. The continuity of their archives has been broken, they have lost the close touch they once had worldwide with their subjects and they are no longer regarded internationally as the centres of innovation and expertise that they once were.

When Birt gets up and says the whole of the BBC was a creative mess and it was wasteful, I never saw any evidence of that. I absolutely know it wasn’t so in my time. Producers now spend all their time worrying about money, and the thing has suffered for it.

In 2008, he criticised the BBC’s television schedules:

I have to say that there are moments when I wonder — moments when its two senior networks, first set up as a partnership, schedule simultaneously programmes of identical character, thereby contradicting the very reason that the BBC was given a second network. Then there are times when both BBC One and BBC Two, intoxicated by the sudden popularity of a programme genre, allow that genre to proliferate and run rampant through the schedules. The result is that other kinds of programmes are not placed, simply because of a lack of space. Do we really require so many gardening programmes, make-over programmes or celebrity chefs? Is it not a scandal in this day and age, that there seems to be no place for continuing series of programmes about science or serious music or thoughtful in-depth interviews with people other than politicians?

In 2009, Attenborough commented on the general state of British television, describing the newly introduced product placement on commercial television as something he considered an "appalling" idea 20 years earlier:

I think it's in great trouble. The whole system on which it was built — a limited number of networks, with adequate funding — is under threat. That funding is no longer there. As stations proliferate, so audiences are reduced. The struggle for audiences becomes ever greater, while money diminishes. I think that's a fair recipe for trouble. Inevitably, this has an impact on the BBC … Fortunately, the BBC doesn't think natural history programmes must compete with ''Strictly Come Dancing'' in terms of audience. The BBC says, 'Make proper, responsible natural history programmes.'

Other causes

In May 2005, Attenborough was appointed as patron of the UK's Blood Pressure Association, which provides information and support to people with hypertension.

Attenborough is also an honorary member of BSES Expeditions, a youth development charity that operates challenging scientific research expeditions to remote wilderness environments.

Parodies and artistic portrayals

Attenborough's accent and hushed, excited delivery have been the subject of frequent parodies by comedians, most notably Spike Milligan, Marty Feldman and ''The Goodies''. Attenborough is portrayed by Michael Palin in the final episode of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', where he searches the African jungle for the legendary Walking Tree of Dahomey (''Quercus Nicholas Parsonus''), sweating excessively and accompanied by native guides wearing saxophones. David Attenborough has also been parodied in a series of GEICO insurance commercials, showing a nature show host, clearly patterned on Attenborough.

"Time Flies", a sketch by David Ives, features a pair of anthropomorphic mayflies engaging in a courtship ritual, while watching themselves on television in a documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

The character of Nigel Thornberry, a nature documentarian on Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys is strongly influenced by Attenborough.

He has also been parodied by the Australia 1980s sketch show The Comedy Company where Ian McFadyen portrays a character called David Rabbitborough.

The video game ''Discworld'', based on the series of books by Terry Pratchett, parodies his unique delivery to explain different aspects of the Discworld Universe, such as L-Space.

Mythbusters host Adam Savage often imitates Attenborough when speaking about his co-host Jamie Hyneman, which Jamie verified in the YouTube Special Episode.

Filmography

Attenborough is known foremost for writing and presenting the ten ''Life'' series, which are presented in chronological order below:

''Life on Earth'' (1979)

''The Living Planet'' (1984)

''The Trials of Life'' (1990)

''Life in the Freezer'' (1993)

''The Private Life of Plants'' (1995)

''The Life of Birds'' (1998)

''The Life of Mammals'' (2002)

''Life in the Undergrowth'' (2005)

''Life in Cold Blood'' (2008)

''First Life'' (2010)

His voice is synonymous with wildlife documentaries for British audiences, and the principal series with which his narration is associated include:

''Wildlife on One'' (1977–2005)

''BBC Wildlife Specials'' (1995–2008)

''The Blue Planet'' (2001)

''Planet Earth'' (British version) (2006)

''Nature's Great Events'' (2009)

''Life (2009)

''The Frozen Planet'' (2011) (in production)

Books

Bibliography

''Zoo Quest to Guyana'' (Lutterworth Press, 1956)

''Zoo Quest for a Dragon'' (Lutterworth Press, 1957)

* (book club edition with 85 extra pages, ''Quest for the Paradise Birds'', 1959)

''Zoo Quest in Paraguay'' (Lutterworth Press, 1959)

* paperback (Penguin Books, 1982)

''Quest in Paradise'' (1960)

''People of Paradise'' (Harper & Brothers, 1960)

''Zoo Quest to Madagascar'' (1961)

''Quest Under Capricorn'' (1963)

''Fabulous Animals'' (BBC, 1975) ISBN 0-563-17006-9

''The Tribal Eye'' (1976)

''Life on Earth'' (1979)

''Discovering Life on Earth'' (1981)

''Journeys to the past: Travels in New Guinea, Madagascar, and the northern territory of Australia'' (1983) Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-00.64133

''The Living Planet'' (1984)

''The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man'' (1987)(Little Brown & Co (T); 1st American ed edition (March 1990))

''The Atlas of the Living World'' (1989)

''The Trials of Life'' (Collins, 1990) ISBN 0-00-219912-2

''The Private Life of Plants'' (BBC Books, 1994) ISBN 0-563-37023-8

''The Life of Birds'' (BBC Books, 1998) ISBN 0-563-38792-0

''The Life of Mammals'' (BBC Books, 2002) ISBN 0-563-53423-0

''Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster'' (autobiography; 2002) ISBN 0-563-53461-3

* paperback: ISBN 0-563-48780-1

* updated edition: ISBN 9781846076527

''Life in the Undergrowth'' (BBC Books, 2005) ISBN 0-563-52208-9

''Amazing Rare Things - The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery'' with Susan Owens, Martin Clayton and Rea Alexandratos (The Royal Collection, 2007) Hardback - ISBN 978-1-902163-46-8; Softback - ISBN 978-1-902163-99-4

''Life in Cold Blood'' (BBC Books, 2007) ISBN 9780563539223

''Life Stories'', (HarperCollins Publishers, 2009) ISBN 9780007338832

''New Life Stories'', (Collins, 2011) ISBN 9780007425129

Introductions

Attenborough has written the introduction or foreword for a number of books, including:

''African Jigsaw: A Musical Entertainment'', Peter Rose and Anne Conlon (published: 1986, Weinberger)

''Tomorrow Is Too Late'', Various (The Macmillan Press, 1990)

''Life in the Freezer: Natural History of the Antarctic'', Alastair Fothergill (BBC Books, 1993), ISBN 0-563-36431-9

''Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae'' (Bird Families of the World series) Clifford B. Frith, Bruce M. Beehler, William T. Cooper (Illustrator) (Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0-19-854853-2

''The Blue Planet'', Andrew Byatt, Alastair Fothergill, Martha Holmes (BBC Books, 2001) ISBN 0-563-38498-0.

''Light on the Earth'' (BBC Books, 2005), two decades of winning images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, ISBN 0-563-52260-7

''Planet Earth'', Alastair Fothergill (BBC Books, 2006), ISBN 0-563-52212-7

Audio recordings

''Tarka the Otter'' by Henry Williamson (available on audiocassette, 1978)

''Yanomamo'' (musical entertainment, 1983) by Peter Rose and Anne Conlon; on-stage narration and published audio recording

''Ocean World'' (musical entertainment, 1990) by Peter Rose and Anne Conlon; on-stage narration (including at The Royal Festival Hall), for audio recording and video broadcast (both published)

''Peter and the Wolf'' for BBC Music Magazine (free CD with the June 2000 issue).

In addition, Attenborough has recorded some of his own works in audiobook form, including ''Life on Earth'', ''Zoo Quest for a Dragon'' and his autobiography ''Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster''.

References

External links

BBC Books David Attenborough website

BBC ''Life on Air'' website

BBC biography

Wildfilmhistory.org biography

BBC interviews with Attenborough in 1976 and 1998

PBS interview with Attenborough in 1998

A Life in TV: Sir David Attenborough, BAFTA

BBC Wildlife Finder - David Attenborough's favourite moments

Tribute from the World Land Trust

Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of University College London Category:BBC Two controllers Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Category:English agnostics Category:English conservationists Category:English environmentalists Category:English television personalities Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:Fellows of the Zoological Society of London Category:Kalinga Prize recipients Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Members of the Linnean Society of London Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:People associated with the University of Leicester Category:People from Leicester Category:People from London Category:Presenters of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Category:British Book Award winners

ar:ديفيد آتينبارا bn:ডেভিড অ্যাটেনব্রো zh-min-nan:David Attenborough bg:Дейвид Атънбъро ca:David Attenborough cs:David Attenborough da:David Attenborough de:David Attenborough et:David Attenborough es:David Attenborough eo:David Attenborough fa:دیوید اتنبرو fr:David Attenborough ga:David Attenborough id:Sir David Attenborough it:David Attenborough he:דייוויד אטנבורו la:David Attenborough hu:David Attenborough nl:David Attenborough ja:デイビッド・アッテンボロー no:David Attenborough pnb:ڈیوڈ ایٹن برا pl:David Attenborough pt:David Attenborough ru:Аттенборо, Дэвид simple:David Attenborough szl:David Attenborough fi:David Attenborough sv:David Attenborough tl:David Attenborough ta:டேவிட் ஆட்டன்பரோ th:เดวิด แอทเทนเบอเรอห์ uk:Девід Аттенборо ur:ڈیوڈ ایٹن برا zh:戴維·阿滕伯勒