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The Story Of Science: Power, Proof And Passion

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For 3,000 years we have wrestled with the great questions of our existence. What's out there, what's the world made of, where did we come from? Our quest to answer these is the story of science.

Presented by Michael Mosley, this landmark series reveals the unique nature of science, the power it has unleashed, and why we struggle to accept so much of what it has to tell us. It's the story of the forces that have come together to create scientific knowledge; the practical business of making instruments and machines; the great forces of history – revolutions, voyages of discovery and artistic movements; and the dogged determination of scientists and experimenters.

This is the story of how history made science – and how science made history. It's the story of how scientific ideas shaped the modern world.

VAA

Aristotle's Lagoon

´óÏó´«Ã½ Four

Professor Armand Leroi follows in the footsteps of Aristotle, one of the most important philosophers of all time, and examines how his studies on the lush island of Lesvos inspired a completely new understanding of the living world. Leroi reveals how Aristotle's discoveries here, including a detailed system of classification, led to the birth of a new science – zoology.

VAA

Robert Winston's Top Ten Advances

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Professor Robert Winston, one of Britain's best known scientists, identifies his top 10 scientific advances of the last 50 years and explains why these (from the microchip to the pill) have changed the face of the world. Professor Winston confronts the challenging debates that scientific progress raises, looking back to some unexpected consequences and on to where today's advances may take us.

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A Brief History Of Mathematics

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4

Oxford Professor Marcus du Sautoy presents this 10-part series which tracks the development of mathematical ideas through time and the many cultural and practical applications they have inspired. Each programme tells the story of one mathematician and the triumph and tragedy before their particular new idea became accepted.

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Beautiful Equations

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Matt Collings, artist and art critic, plunges into the world of mathematical equations. As he explores the most famous equations in science – Einstein's E=mc2, Dirac's equation on anti-matter, and Newton's laws of gravity – Matt realises that concepts of beauty and elegance have been used by many scientists to advance their work.

Along the way he meets Stephen Hawking, looks up at the planets at a Cambridge observatory, and observes a particle of anti-matter for the first time. It's an emotional journey for Matt as he witnesses the bond between science and art, forcing him to reappraise his own understanding of beauty.

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Chemistry: A Volatile History

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What is everything made from? How is it that you, the air, and all we see around us is essentially made up of just a handful of basic building blocks? This is the mysterious and surprising world of the chemical elements, explored in an absorbing series presented by nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al- Khalili.

He unravels one of the most beautiful stories of discovery in the history of science, charting the men and women who unlocked the secrets of the elements and mapped chemistry's vital landscape.

VAA

In Our Time: The Royal Society And British Science

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4

To mark the Royal Society's 350th anniversary, Melvyn Bragg presents a four-part series about the society's leading role in the development of modern science.

Melvyn Bragg explores how the Royal Society has adapted to social, political, economic and scientific change. He questions if the Royal Society can be seen as a barometer of British science and sees how other institutions of British science, such as the Royal Institution, copied, challenged and partially eclipsed the Royal Society. Finally, he tries to assess how important the Royal Society has been to the development of science and what kind of role it envisages for itself in the future among the university departments and private laboratories of modern science.

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