Surprising stories from the history of science told by Naomi Alderman and Philip Ball.
Radio 4,·50 episodes
Did Newton's theory of gravity really come to him after seeing an apple fall?
25 Dec 2019,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman tells the story of Sophia Jex-Blake, first woman doctor in Scotland.
18 Dec 2019,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman tells the story of Mary Somerville, pioneer of popular science writing
11 Dec 2019,·28 mins
Alexis Carrel and the immortal chicken heart
Philip Ball tells the tale of Alexis Carrel's immortal chicken heart.
10 Sep 2019,·28 mins
Ramon Llull: the medieval prophet of computer science
Philip Ball tells the story of Ramon Llull, the medieval prophet of computer science.
03 Sep 2019,·28 mins
Ignaz Semmelweiss: The Hand Washer
Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of Ignaz Semmelweiss, the hand washer.
27 Aug 2019,·28 mins
Madame Lavoisier's Translation of Oxygen
Philip Ball tells the story of Madame Lavoisier, the translator of oxygen.
20 Aug 2019,·28 mins
Galileo's lost letter questions how he challenged the Church. With Philip Ball.
13 Aug 2019,·28 mins
Philip Ball's story is of Ibn al-Haytham, the first scientist, and how we see.
09 Jan 2019,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman on how Lady Mary Montagu used her own child to prove smallpox inoculation.
02 Jan 2019,·28 mins
Philip Ball's tale is of Kepler's Snowflakes, a New Year's gift and of crystallography.
26 Dec 2018,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman's story is of Lucretius, sheep and atoms
19 Dec 2018,·28 mins
Philip Ball tells the story of Arthur Eddington's confirmation of general relativity.
12 Dec 2018,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman tells the story of Mary Anning, who discovered many important fossils.
11 Jul 2018,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman's story is of Hypatia - the mathematician murdered by a mob in Alexandria.
04 Jul 2018,·28 mins
Philip Ball goes back to the 17th century to tell the story of Descartes' 'daughter'.
27 Jun 2018,·28 mins
Philip Ball tells the story of German chemist Friedrich Wöhler's creation of urea.
20 Jun 2018,·28 mins
Philip Ball reveals the real Cyrano de Bergerac and his 17th-century spaceship.
13 Jun 2018,·28 mins
Philip Ball tells the story of Michael Faraday and his 'first instructess' in chemistry.
20 Dec 2017,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman describes how Humphry Davy discovered laughing gas.
13 Dec 2017,·28 mins
Lise Meitner, the humanitarian physicist who unlocked the science of the atom bomb.
06 Dec 2017,·28 mins
How a 13-year-old girl mapped metamorphosis in the 1600s. Naomi Alderman presents.
29 Nov 2017,·30 mins
Philip Ball dives into the Dark Ages to reveal the author of the river crossing riddle.
22 Nov 2017,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman tells the story of 18th-century comet spotter and singer Caroline Herschel.
05 Jul 2017,·28 mins
The man who put maths into biology and saw physics in shells, seeds and bees 100 years ago
28 Jun 2017,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman opens the pages of medieval recipe books to find antimicrobial salves.
21 Jun 2017,·28 mins
Philip Ball on a very modern medieval Big Bang Theory forged by a 13th-century bishop.
14 Jun 2017,·28 mins
Naomi Alderman tells the story of Pavlov and his selectively drooling dogs.
07 Jun 2017,·28 mins
How William Fox Talbot captured a moment in time.
11 Jan 2017,·28 mins
Philip Ball tells the story of US geneticist and 1983 Nobel prize-winner Barbara McLintock
04 Jan 2017,·28 mins
