Simon Schaffer
Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge
25 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Iwan Morus, Jim Bennett, Patricia Fara, Hasok Chang, Joanna Haigh, Jenny Uglow
Covers topics in categories such as:
Nikola Tesla
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the inventor who helped the advance of electrification in America at the end of the 19th century and cultivated his reputation as a visionary genius
4 April 2024
Also featuring: Jill Jonnes, Iwan Morus
SciencePeople associated with electricityRadio pioneers20th-century American engineersAmerican electrical engineers, People from ManhattanMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyNaturalized citizens of the United StatesMembers of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsMental calculatorsAmerican humanistsDeaths from coronary thrombosis19th century20th centuryLongitude
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, Jim Bennett
Alan Turing
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of the founder of computer science - whose work helped crack enemy codes in WW2 - and his exploration of artificial intelligence.
15 October 2020
Also featuring: Leslie Ann Goldberg, Andrew Hodges
SciencePeople convicted for homosexuality in the United Kingdom, People who have received posthumous pardonsEnglish inventorsLGBTQ mathematicians, LGBTQ philosophersComputer designersTheoretical biologists20th-century English philosophersGay scientistsSuicides by cyanide poisoning20th-century atheistsEnglish people of Scottish descentCastrated peopleGay academicsEnglish people of Irish descentEnglish logicians20th-century English LGBTQ people20th-century English mathematiciansFellows of the Royal SocietyEnglish atheists20th centuryComputationMathematicsThe Time Machine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and anxieties in late Victorian London, explored by HG Wells in his story of time travel, evolution and a planet unfit for humans.
17 October 2019
Also featuring: Amanda Rees, Simon James
Automata
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of ideas about machines imitating living creatures, and the questions they raise about the differences between machinery and humanity.
20 September 2018
Also featuring: Elly Truitt, Franziska Kohlt
The Invention of Photography
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development and impact of photography in the 1830s, with heliographs, sun pictures, photogenic drawing, Daguerre and Fox Talbot.
7 July 2016
Also featuring: Elizabeth Edwards, Alison Morrison-Low
Voyages of James Cook
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science behind Capt James Cook's three voyages of discovery, from 1768 to 1779, one of over a thousand ideas suggested by listeners.
3 December 2015
Also featuring: Rebekah Higgitt, Sophie Forgan
Robert Boyle
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Robert Boyle, a pioneering scientist and one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society.
12 June 2014
Also featuring: Michael Hunter, Anna Marie Roos
Science17th-century Anglo-Irish peopleIndependent scientistsFluid dynamicistsEnglish alchemistsIrish AnglicansDiscoverers of chemical elementsPeople educated at Eton College17th-century English male writers17th-century English writersWriters about religion and science17th-century English philosophersEnglish physicistsPhilosophers of science17th centuryIrelandThe Invention of Radio
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio.
4 July 2013
Also featuring: Elizabeth Bruton, John Liffen
Absolute Zero
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss absolute zero, the theoretical lower limit of temperature.
7 March 2013
Also featuring: Stephen Blundell, Nicola Wilkin
The Scientific method
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Scientific Method, the systematic and analytical approach to scientific discovery.
26 January 2012
Also featuring: John Worrall, Michela Massimi
Thomas Edison
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Thomas Edison, one of the great inventors and cultural figures of modern America.
9 December 2010
Also featuring: Kathleen Burk, Iwan Morus
ScienceHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesPeople associated with electricityAmerican people of Dutch descentAmerican electrical engineers, People from ManhattanAmerican people of English descentAmerican deistsCongressional Gold Medal recipientsHonorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Matteucci Medal19th-century American businesspeopleMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyRecipients of Franklin Medal20th-century American inventors, Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences19th century20th centuryThe 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: Jim Bennett, Patricia Fara
Calculus
Melvyn Bragg and guests Patricia Fara, Simon Schaffer and Jackie Stedall discuss the dispute between Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz over who invented calculus.
24 September 2009
Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Jackie Stedall
Heat
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of scientific ideas about heat from fire to thermodynamics.
4 December 2008
Also featuring: Hasok Chang, Joanna Haigh
The Laws of Motion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion – three sentences that explain the movements of everything from planets to ping pong balls.
3 April 2008
Also featuring: Raymond Flood, Rob Iliffe
Oxygen
Melvyn Bragg discusses the discovery of Oxygen by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier and the Anglo-French feud that accompanied it.
15 November 2007
Also featuring: Jenny Uglow, Hasok Chang
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: Jim Bennett, Emily Winterburn
Astronomy and Empire
Melvyn Bragg discusses the relationship between astronomy and the British Empire, how astronomical science provided a means for navigation and British naval control.
4 May 2006
Also featuring: Kristen Lippincott, Allan Chapman
Electrickery
Melvyn Bragg discusses the dawn of the age of electricity, from lightning conductors to leaping soldiers and Franklin to Frankenstein.
4 November 2004
Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Iwan Morus
Rutherford
Melvyn Bragg discusses Ernest Rutherford. He is seen as the father of nuclear science, a great charismatic figure who mapped the landscape of the sub-atomic world.
19 February 2004
Also featuring: Jim Al-Khalili, Patricia Fara
ScienceRadio pioneers20th-century British physicists, Members of the Pontifical Academy of SciencesPersons of National Historic Significance (Canada)Fellows of Trinity College, CambridgeKnights BachelorDiscoverers of chemical elementsHonorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Matteucci MedalHonorary Fellows of the Royal Society of EdinburghRecipients of Franklin MedalCorresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)Experimental physicistsCavendish Professors of PhysicsRecipients of the Dalton MedalEnglish Nobel laureatesAcademics of the Victoria University of ManchesterRecipients of the Copley MedalBritish Nobel laureates20th-century British scientistsForeign associates of the National Academy of SciencesMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyNobel laureates in Chemistry19th-century British physicistsBurials at Westminster Abbey19th century20th centuryMaxwell
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and work of the often overlooked 19th century Scottish scientist, and his enormous contribution to the creation of the technological age in which we live.
2 October 2003
Also featuring: Peter Harman, Joanna Haigh
SciencePeople associated with electricityDeaths from stomach cancer in EnglandCavendish Professors of PhysicsAlumni of Trinity College, CambridgeAlumni of the University of EdinburghOptical physicistsAcademics of King's College LondonColor scientistsFellows of the Royal Society19th-century British physicistsBritish theoretical physicists, Mathematical physicistsMagneticians19th centuryMathematicsThe Lunar Society
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Birmingham based society of prominent 18th century scientists, engineers and intellectuals who pioneered the science of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution.
5 June 2003
Also featuring: Jenny Uglow, Peter Jones
Oceanography
Melvyn Bragg discusses the science of Oceanography which has attempted to unmask the enigma of the oceans and seas.
22 November 2001
Also featuring: Margaret Deacon, Tony Rice
Goethe and the Science of the Enlightenment
Melvyn Bragg assesses the scientific legacy of the 18th century German poet and thinker Goethe, who gave us the term morphology and is sometimes even credited with inventing biology itself.
10 February 2000
Also featuring: Nicholas Boyle
Science18th-century German male writersMembers of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences19th-century German non-fiction writersGerman philosophers of language19th-century travel writersMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and HumanitiesPhilosophers of sexualityLiteracy and society theoristsGerman autobiographersGerman philosophers of historyGerman male non-fiction writersEpigrammatistsJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sturm und DrangEpic poetsPhilosophers of linguistics18th-century German civil servants, 18th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 18th-century German historians, 18th-century German novelists, 18th-century German poets, 18th-century travel writers, 19th-century German civil servants, 19th-century German diplomats, 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century German poets, German bibliophiles, German diplomats, German male novelists, People from Weimar, Scientists from Weimar, Writers from Frankfurt, Writers from WeimarGerman untitled nobilityNatural philosophersWriters about activism and social changeRomantic poetsGerman travel writersGerman librariansPhilosophy writersGerman political philosophersFabulists19th-century German novelistsGerman FreemasonsColor scientistsGerman philosophers of culture18th-century German philosophers, 18th-century essayistsFreethought writersGerman philosophers of science19th-century German philosophersGerman ethicists, German philosophers of educationTheorists on Western civilizationLiterary theoristsUniversity of Strasbourg alumniLeipzig University alumni19th-century German historiansGerman male dramatists and playwrights, German male poetsPhilosophers of social science19th-century German essayists19th-century German male writersGerman male essayistsEnlightenment philosophers18th-century German educators, 18th-century historians, 19th-century German educators, 19th-century historiansPantheistsPhilosophers of literatureGerman philosophers of art18th century19th centuryGermanyLanguage