Kirsty Young's castaway is Professor Hugh Pennington. Professor Pennington has spent his life trying to understand diseases and how they spread. He has chaired two major enquiries into E. coli, and his influence is felt everywhere from school kitchens to hospital wards. But he concedes that in his own home, efforts to ban the humble tea towel from his kitchen have so far failed.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sonata in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The Cabinet Cyclopedia by Dionysius Lardner Luxury: Brass microscope.