Astronomy
26 episodes
Al-Biruni
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his 11th-century book India, one of the first scholarly works about the country.
10 June 2010
Featuring: James Montgomery, Hugh Kennedy, Amira Bennison
CultureAstronomical instrument makersIslamic philosophersAstronomers of the medieval Islamic worldMedieval Iranian pharmacologists, Transoxanian Islamic scholarsPsychology in the medieval Islamic worldAlchemists of the medieval Islamic worldExplorers of AsiaAsharis, Muslim critics of atheismCritics of deism11th centuryAstronomyIslamPsychologyAl-Kindi
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Al-Kindi, often described as the first philosopher in the Arabic tradition.
28 June 2012
Featuring: Hugh Kennedy, James Montgomery, Amira Bennison
PhilosophyMusic theorists of the medieval Islamic worldAlchemists of the medieval Islamic worldPhilosophers of religionPhilosophers of logicMetaphysics writersIslamic philosophersAstronomers of the medieval Islamic worldAristotelian philosophersEpistemologistsPhilosophers of educationPhilosophers of artIntellectual historyPhilosophers of psychologyMetaphysiciansPhilosophers of mathematics9th-century philosophersPhilosophers of scienceArabic-language commentators on AristotleOntologists9th centuryAstronomyIslamLanguageMathematicsMedicinePsychologyAngkor Wat
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing and massive Cambodian temple commissioned by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, a centre for Hinduism, Buddhism and Animism.
23 June 2022
Featuring: Piphal Heng, Ashley Thompson, Simon Warrack
Asteroids
Melvyn Bragg discusses asteroids, once regarded as “the vermin of the solar system” but now viewed as key to our understanding of the beginning of time.
3 November 2005
Featuring: Monica Grady, Carolin Crawford, John Zarnecki
Black Holes
Melvyn Bragg discusses Black Holes, the dead collapsed ghosts of massive stars.
12 April 2001
Featuring: Martin Rees, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Martin Ward
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Gauss, 'prince of mathematicians', including those on number theory, geometry, probability theory, astronomy and electromagnetism.
30 November 2017
Featuring: Marcus du Sautoy, Colva Roney-Dougal, Nick Evans
ScienceRecipients of the Copley MedalMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesUniversity of Göttingen alumniMembers of the Bavarian Academy of SciencesAcademic staff of the University of GöttingenHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences18th-century German astronomersMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesGerman LutheransMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and HumanitiesCorresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesOptical physicistsRecipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesMental calculatorsFellows of the Royal SocietyLinear algebraists18th centuryAstronomyMathematicsComets
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss comets, the 'dirty snowballs' of the solar system which orbit the sun.
17 January 2013
Featuring: Monica Grady, Paul Murdin, Don Pollacco
Cosmic rays
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss cosmic rays, the mysterious high-energy particles that constantly bombard Earth.
16 May 2013
Featuring: Carolin Crawford, Alan Watson, Tim Greenshaw
Dark Energy
Melvyn Bragg discusses the recently discovered, and mysteriously named, 'dark energy' which may make up 70% of the universe.
17 March 2005
Featuring: Martin Rees, Carolin Crawford, Roger Penrose
Dark matter
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance that is believed to make up most of the universe.
12 March 2015
Featuring: Carolin Crawford, Gresham Professor of Astronomy Carlos Frenk, Anne Green
Eclipses
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the progress in our understanding of eclipses from the ancient world onwards and how their predictability illuminates historical records and myths.
31 December 2020
Featuring: Carolin Crawford, Frank Close, Lucie Green
Exoplanets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss exoplanets, planets detected outside our solar system.
3 October 2013
Featuring: Carolin Crawford, Don Pollacco, Suzanne Aigrain
Extra Terrestrials
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether there are reasons to suppose that some form of life might exist beyond, or even within, our solar system and what our chances of ever discovering such a planet are.
4 April 2002
Featuring: Simon Goodwin, Heather Couper, Ian Stewart
Galaxies
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the galaxies; spread out across the void of space like spun sugar, but harbouring in their centres super-massive black holes.
29 June 2006
Featuring: John Gribbin, Carolin Crawford, Robert Kennicutt
Grand Unified Theory
Melvyn Bragg examines 20th century’s physics’ search for one theory that can explain the behaviour of the smallest particle as well as the movements of the largest planets in the Universe.
24 February 2000
Featuring: Brian Greene, Martin Rees
Gravitational Waves
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gravitational Waves, mysterious phenomena that ripple the fabric of space-time.
17 May 2007
Featuring: Jim Al-Khalili, Carolin Crawford, Sheila Rowan
The Age of the Universe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss a question which has obsessed cosmologists for millennia: how old is the Universe?
3 March 2011
Featuring: Martin Rees, Carolin Crawford, Carlos Frenk
The Antikythera Mechanism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2,000-year-old Greek astronomical computer, one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology.
14 November 2024
Featuring: Mike Edmunds, Jo Marchant, Liba Taub
The Death of Stars
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how so much in the Universe, and much of our understanding of it, depends on changes in stars as they die after millions or billions of stable years
9 June 2022
Featuring: Martin Rees, Carolin Crawford, Mark Sullivan
The Habitability of Planets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the ideas on the chemistry that was needed for life to begin and thrive on Earth and the implications for where we may find life elsewhere.
12 December 2024
Featuring: Jayne Birkby, Saidul Islam, Oliver Shorttle
The Life of Stars
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life cycle of stars. They are born among vast swirls of gas and dust and they die in stunning explosions.
27 March 2003
Featuring: Paul Murdin, Janna Levin, Phil Charles
The Multiverse
Melvyn Bragg and guests will be leaving the studio, the planet and indeed, the universe to take a tour of the Multiverse
21 February 2008
Featuring: Martin Rees, Fay Dowker, Bernard Carr
The Planets
Melvyn Bragg discusses our knowledge of the planets in both our and other solar systems. What causes them to form and what is the likelihood of there being another with properties similar to Earth’s?
27 May 2004
Featuring: Paul Murdin, Hugh Jones, Carolin Crawford
The Universe's Origins
Melvyn Bragg examines the way thinking about the origins of the universe changed in the 20th century. Are we any closer to knowing whether other worlds exist and how our planet came into being?
20 May 1999
Featuring: Martin Rees, Paul Davies
The Universe's Shape
Melvyn Bragg discusses shape, size and topology of the universe and examines theories about its expansion. If it is already infinite, how can it be getting any bigger? And is there really only one?
7 February 2002
Featuring: Martin Rees, Julian Barbour, Janna Levin
William and Caroline Herschel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering brother and sister who, between them, discovered Uranus, comets, double stars and infrared light at the end of the 18th century.
11 November 2021
Featuring: Monica Grady, Carolin Crawford, Jim Bennett
ScienceRecipients of the Copley MedalMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesClassical-period composersGerman male classical composers19th-century German male musicians18th-century classical composersHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences18th-century German astronomersGerman LutheransGerman classical composers18th-century keyboardistsBritish scientific instrument makersFellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences18th-century German composersFellows of the Royal Society18th century19th centuryAstronomyGermanyMusic
