Robyn Williams, host of ABC RN's The Science Show, on 50 years of broadcasting and the day Norman Swan saved his life

Robyn Williams interviewing Melbourne Museum's Hazel Richards about the fate of the dinosaurs in his 50th year of broadcasting. (Supplied: Museums Victoria/Thomas Holloway)

As astronauts on board Apollo 17 carried out a momentous mission in December 1972 — the first Moon landing by a scientist-astronaut, Harrison Schmitt, and the last opportunity (so far) for humans to walk on the lunar landscape — a young Robyn Williams found himself taking a giant leap into the broadcasting unknown.

Earlier that year, the 28-year-old science (honours) graduate from the University of London had turned up at the ABC Science Unit looking for a job and, luckily, in what he calls a "sliding doors" moment, science journalist Max Bourke (future head of the Australia Council and founding director of the Heritage Council) had just resigned, and Williams was hired as a "gopher".