Philosophy
After exploring the birth of the scientific revolution in England, today's episode explores five more men whose curiosity not only led to fascinating new discoveries like their predecessors, but would actually change the world.
Richard Dawkins tells the fascinating (and somewhat disturbing) story of how Edward Jenner confronted small pox, one of history's greatest killers, head-on: by deliberately infecting a young boy with the disease after infecting him with a dose of cow pox. His experiment wouldn't be approved by ethics committees today, but Jenner's discovery of immunization has saved more lives than perhaps any other single discovery in medical science.
David Attenborough celebrates Joseph Banks, the naturalist who would sail across the globe in search of new animal and plant species, and would eventually establish the beautiful Botanical Gardens at Kew. Meanwhile, James Dyson recounts the story of how James Watt's design for the steam engine would fuel the industrial revolution. Thanks to the two, Britain would become the wealthiest nation in the world.
Stephen Hawking and Jim Al-Khalili tell the story of Henry Cavendish's discovery of hydrogen and Joseph Priestley's discovery of oxygen, and how their mutual collaboration revealed water to be a compound and not a basic element, as had been justifiably believed, though mistakenly, for millennia.
Finally, Lord Robert Winston explains the story of how modern surgery was born: from the insatiable curiosity of Joseph Hunter, surgeon, anatomist and body-snatcher :)
Learn more about the scientific tradition in the Cavendish family in this episode from In Our Time.
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- The Genius Of Britain - Episode 3
After exploring the birth of the scientific revolution as it took place in England, and tracing the consequences of that revolution as they manifested in and helped fuel the industrial revolution, today's episode of this fascinating documentary series...
- Light Fantastic - Light, The Universe And Everything
Welcome to the final episode of Simon Schaffer's fascinating documentary series, Light Fantastic. Thanks to the incredible work of Einstein, we know today that although light travels in straight lines through space, space-time itself isn't always...
- Chemistry: A Volatile History - The Order Of The Elements
In the first episode of this fascinating documentary series, Professor Jim Al-Khalili traced the history of chemical element discovery, from its origins in ancient Greece to medieval alchemy and finally to modern chemistry. With a lot of ingenuity, scientists...
- Chemistry: A Volatile History - Discovering The Elements
When the ancient Greeks inquired into the building blocks of the universe, they posited the existence of four fundamental elements out of which everything else is composed: earth, fire, air and water (and in some cases, ether). Crude as this taxonomy...
- S. Hawking Is Moving Closer To Philosophy
"Stephen Hawking tackles Creation on 'Curiosity'" by Dan Vergano July 31st, 2011 USA TODAY The most famous scientist in the world, Stephen Hawking, has never avoided the big questions, from the nature of time to the fate of the universe. But...
Philosophy
The Genius of Britain - Episode 2
After exploring the birth of the scientific revolution in England, today's episode explores five more men whose curiosity not only led to fascinating new discoveries like their predecessors, but would actually change the world.Richard Dawkins tells the fascinating (and somewhat disturbing) story of how Edward Jenner confronted small pox, one of history's greatest killers, head-on: by deliberately infecting a young boy with the disease after infecting him with a dose of cow pox. His experiment wouldn't be approved by ethics committees today, but Jenner's discovery of immunization has saved more lives than perhaps any other single discovery in medical science.
David Attenborough celebrates Joseph Banks, the naturalist who would sail across the globe in search of new animal and plant species, and would eventually establish the beautiful Botanical Gardens at Kew. Meanwhile, James Dyson recounts the story of how James Watt's design for the steam engine would fuel the industrial revolution. Thanks to the two, Britain would become the wealthiest nation in the world.Stephen Hawking and Jim Al-Khalili tell the story of Henry Cavendish's discovery of hydrogen and Joseph Priestley's discovery of oxygen, and how their mutual collaboration revealed water to be a compound and not a basic element, as had been justifiably believed, though mistakenly, for millennia.Finally, Lord Robert Winston explains the story of how modern surgery was born: from the insatiable curiosity of Joseph Hunter, surgeon, anatomist and body-snatcher :)
Learn more about the scientific tradition in the Cavendish family in this episode from In Our Time.
.
- The Genius Of Britain - Episode 3
After exploring the birth of the scientific revolution as it took place in England, and tracing the consequences of that revolution as they manifested in and helped fuel the industrial revolution, today's episode of this fascinating documentary series...
- Light Fantastic - Light, The Universe And Everything
Welcome to the final episode of Simon Schaffer's fascinating documentary series, Light Fantastic. Thanks to the incredible work of Einstein, we know today that although light travels in straight lines through space, space-time itself isn't always...
- Chemistry: A Volatile History - The Order Of The Elements
In the first episode of this fascinating documentary series, Professor Jim Al-Khalili traced the history of chemical element discovery, from its origins in ancient Greece to medieval alchemy and finally to modern chemistry. With a lot of ingenuity, scientists...
- Chemistry: A Volatile History - Discovering The Elements
When the ancient Greeks inquired into the building blocks of the universe, they posited the existence of four fundamental elements out of which everything else is composed: earth, fire, air and water (and in some cases, ether). Crude as this taxonomy...
- S. Hawking Is Moving Closer To Philosophy
"Stephen Hawking tackles Creation on 'Curiosity'" by Dan Vergano July 31st, 2011 USA TODAY The most famous scientist in the world, Stephen Hawking, has never avoided the big questions, from the nature of time to the fate of the universe. But...