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In Our Time: Science

In Our Time: Science

BBC Radio 4

Scientific principles, theory, and the role of key figures in the advancement of science.

282 - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
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  • 282 - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German physicist who, at the age of 23 and while still a student, effectively created quantum mechanics for which he later won the Nobel Prize. Werner Heisenberg made this breakthrough in a paper in 1925 when, rather than starting with an idea of where atomic particles were at any one time, he worked backwards from what he observed of atoms and their particles and the light they emitted, doing away with the idea of their continuous orbit of the nucleus and replacing this with equations. This was momentous and from this flowed what’s known as his Uncertainty Principle, the idea that, for example, you can accurately measure the position of an atomic particle or its momentum, but not both.

    With

    Fay Dowker Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London

    Harry Cliff Research Fellow in Particle Physics at the University of Cambridge

    And

    Frank Close Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at the University of Oxford

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Philip Ball, Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different (Vintage, 2018)

    John Bell, ‘Against 'measurement'’ (Physics World, Vol 3, No 8, 1990)

    Mara Beller, Quantum Dialogue: The Making of a Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2001)

    David C. Cassidy, Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, And The Bomb (Bellevue Literary Press, 2010)

    Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (first published 1958; Penguin Classics, 2000)

    Carlo Rovelli, Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics (Penguin, 2022)

    Thu, 28 Mar 2024
  • 281 - Plankton

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the tiny drifting organisms in the oceans that sustain the food chain for all the lifeforms in the water and so for the billions of people who, in turn, depend on the seas for their diet. In Earth's development, the plant-like ones among them, the phytoplankton, produced so much oxygen through photosynthesis that around half the oxygen we breathe today originated there. And each day as the sun rises, the animal ones, the zooplankton, sink to the depths of the seas to avoid predators in such density that they appear on ship sonars like a new seabed, only to rise again at night in the largest migration of life on this planet.

    With

    Carol Robinson Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of East Anglia

    Abigail McQuatters-Gollop Associate Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Plymouth

    And

    Christopher Lowe Lecturer in Marine Biology at Swansea University

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Juli Berwald, Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone (Riverhead Books, 2018)

    Sir Alister Hardy, The Open Sea: The World of Plankton (first published 1959; Collins New Naturalist Library, 2009)

    Richard Kirby, Ocean Drifters: A Secret World Beneath the Waves (Studio Cactus Ltd, 2010)

    Robert Kunzig, Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science (Sort Of Books, 2000)

    Christian Sardet, Plankton: Wonders of the Drifting World (University of Chicago Press, 2015)

    Helen Scales, The Brilliant Abyss: True Tales of Exploring the Deep Sea, Discovering Hidden Life and Selling the Seabed (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2022)

    Thu, 02 Nov 2023
  • 280 - Albert Einstein

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who, in 1905, produced several papers that were to change the world of physics and whose name went on to become a byword for genius. This was Albert Einstein, then still a technical expert at a Swiss patent office, and that year of 1905 became known as his annus mirabilis ('miraculous year'). While Einstein came from outside the academic world, some such as Max Planck championed his theory of special relativity, his principle of mass-energy equivalence that followed, and his explanations of Brownian Motion and the photoelectric effect. Yet it was not until 1919, when a solar eclipse proved his theory that gravity would bend light, that Einstein became an international celebrity and developed into an almost mythical figure.

    With

    Richard Staley Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and Professor in History of Science at the University of Copenhagen

    Diana Kormos Buchwald Robert M. Abbey Professor of History and Director and General Editor of The Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology

    And

    John Heilbron Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times (first published 1971; HarperPaperbacks, 2011)

    Albert Einstein (eds. Jurgen Renn and Hanoch Gutfreund), Relativity: The Special and the General Theory - 100th Anniversary Edition (Princeton University Press, 2019)

    Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years (first published 1950; Citadel Press, 1974)

    Albert Einstein (ed. Paul A. Schilpp), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist: The Library of Living Philosophers Volume VII (first published 1949; Open Court, 1970)

    Albert Einstein (eds. Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden), Einstein on Peace (first published 1981; Literary Licensing, 2011)

    Albrecht Folsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography (Viking, 1997)

    J. L. Heilbron, Niels Bohr: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2020)

    Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe (Simon & Schuster, 2008)

    Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion (Princeton University Press, 2002)

    Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Einstein (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

    Dennis Overbye, Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance (Viking, 2000)

    Abraham Pais, Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford University Press, 1982)

    David E. Rowe and Robert Schulmann (eds.), Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb (Princeton University Press, 2007)

    Matthew Stanley, Einstein's War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I (Dutton, 2019)

    Fritz Stern, Einstein’s German World (Princeton University Press, 1999)

    A. Douglas Stone, Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian (Princeton University Press, 2013)

    Milena Wazeck (trans. Geoffrey S. Koby), Einstein's Opponents: The Public Controversy About the Theory of Relativity in the 1920s (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

    Thu, 12 Oct 2023
  • 279 - Mitochondria

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth.

    Inside each cell of every complex organism there are structures known as mitochondria. The 19th century scientists who first observed them thought they were bacteria which had somehow invaded the cells they were studying. We now understand that mitochondria take components from the food we eat and convert them into energy.

    Mitochondria are essential for complex life, but as the components that run our metabolisms they can also be responsible for a range of diseases – and they probably play a role in how we age. The DNA in mitochondria is only passed down the maternal line. This means it can be used to trace population movements deep into human history, even back to an ancestor we all share: mitochondrial Eve.

    With

    Mike Murphy Professor of Mitochondrial Redox Biology at the University of Cambridge

    Florencia Camus NERC Independent Research Fellow at University College London

    and

    Nick Lane Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London

    Producer Luke Mulhall

    Thu, 29 Jun 2023
  • 278 - Linnaeus

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and legacy of the pioneering Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778). The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once wrote: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth".

    The son of a parson, Linnaeus grew up in an impoverished part of Sweden but managed to gain a place at university. He went on to transform biology by making two major innovations. He devised a simpler method of naming species and he developed a new system for classifying plants and animals, a system that became known as the Linnaean hierarchy. He was also one of the first people to grow a banana in Europe.

    With

    Staffan Muller-Wille University Lecturer in History of Life, Human and Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge

    Stella Sandford Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London

    and

    Steve Jones Senior Research Fellow in Genetics at University College, London

    Producer Luke Mulhall

    Thu, 18 May 2023
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