Jim Bennett
Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum in London
11 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Simon Schaffer
Covers topics in categories such as:
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
Also featuring: Monica Grady, Carolin Crawford
ScienceFellows of the Royal SocietyFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesRecipients of the Copley MedalMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesGerman Lutherans18th-century classical composers19th-century German male musicians18th-century German composersGerman classical composers18th-century German astronomersClassical-period composersBritish scientific instrument makers18th-century keyboardistsGerman male classical composersLongitude
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th-century search for ways to calculate longitude at sea - how far east or west a ship was - to make voyages across oceans safer and faster.
13 May 2021
Also featuring: Rebekah Higgitt, Simon Schaffer
John Dalton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss scientist John Dalton, who pioneered the development of atomic theory and carried out research into meteorology and colour blindness.
27 October 2016
Also featuring: Aileen Fyfe, James Sumner
The Science of Glass
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the puzzling science of glass which, though hard and brittle, retains aspects of a liquid once cooled into its solid form.
28 May 2015
Also featuring: Paul McMillan, Dame Athene Donald
The Microscope
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the microscope, from its invention in the 17th century to the latest sophisticated imaging techniques.
28 November 2013
Also featuring: Colin Humphreys, Michelle Peckham
The Measurement of Time
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the measurement of time and the various methods used for doing so over millennia of human history.
29 March 2012
Also featuring: Kristen Lippincott, Jonathan Betts
Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the last of the great Greek astronomers of antiquity, Ptolemy, and his influence on ancient and medieval astronomy.
17 November 2011
Also featuring: Liba Taub, Charles Burnett
The Cavendish Family in Science
Melvyn Bragg and guests Jim Bennett, Simon Schaffer and Patricia Fara explore the scientific achievements of the Cavendish family, from the 17th to the 19th century.
20 May 2010
Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Simon Schaffer
The Music of the Spheres
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the music of the spheres, the idea that the revolution of the planets generates a celestial harmony of profound beauty
19 June 2008
Also featuring: Peter Forshaw, Angela Voss
Optics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of optics – from star gazing with a telescope to examining lice under a microscope
1 March 2007
Also featuring: Simon Schaffer, Emily Winterburn
Renaissance Maths
Melvyn Bragg discusses Renaissance Mathematics and the change in the understanding of numbers, movement, time and even nature itself, culminating in the calculus of Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.
2 June 2005
Also featuring: Robert Lee Kaplan, Jackie Stedall