The best telly is often found on
the radio – by which I mean you often get much better quality pictures on the
radio than on television.
Anyone who follows this blog on
Twitter will know that I am a big fan of BBC Radio. I regularly post links there
to radio programmes which have caught my interest and which I hope connect with
the themes I explore here in these blog posts. In my opinion, BBC radio really
is second to none for factual documentaries and discussion programmes. For
instance, programmes such as Night Waves on
Radio 3 or In Our Time on Radio 4
really are satisfyingly thought provoking and enlightening fare. The spoken
word, the same as the written word, engages the mind in a wholly different
manner to the visual stimulus of moving pictures seen on a TV screen. Don’t get me
wrong though, I’m not denigrating television as a media format – you only have
to pick any of David Attenborough’s series on the natural world as but merely
one example of how TV can open the world up within our home in equally mind
expanding ways. But I think it helps to supplement these visual feasts with
other imaginative modes and means of presenting new and interesting information
– and such radio programmes really are food for the mind.
Last night the first of what I
think may well prove to be a landmark series began on BBC Radio 4 titled: The Seven Ages of Science. Presented by
the distinguished historian, Lisa Jardine, the series intends to explore the
history of science from the 17th century onwards by placing it into
the context of scientific endeavour in
the world rather than simply exploring the
world within science itself. Previous approaches to the history of science
have very much focussed on the scientific enlightenment as a series of
discoveries rather than looking at these achievements within the context of the
world at the time in which they were first made. These days I think we are very
much becoming increasingly aware that disciplines overlap and interact in ways
which aren’t always as readily apparent as they might be. If we look at
different methods and means of enquiry less as distinctly compartmentalised
zones we can see that things often interact, sometimes in unusual or even
unexpected ways. How often have you had a thought which was inspired by
something completely unexpected or seemingly entirely unrelated? Such “eureka!” moments are often the product
of unseen cumulative results coalescing together. Take Sir Isaac Newton’s
famous phrase that his achievements were modestly made by his “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Professor
Jardine makes the point that those giants – rather than solely being the
formidable intellects of other great minds – were actually the host of humble unnamed
individuals, contemporary artisans and instrument makers, who were hard at work
in London perfecting clocks, microscopes, telescopes, and other instruments
designed for the purposes of practical experimentation.
These scientific instruments enabled
people such as Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley, Christopher Wren, and, (Lisa
Jardine’s own personal hero) Robert Hooke, et al – the learned gentlemen of the Royal
Society, to conduct experiments which helped them to formulate many of the
scientific laws and principles which we take today as given and tested truths.
As she and a host of other historians and scientists interviewed in the course
of the programme testify these curious and curious-minded individuals were real
people, interacting in mutually beneficial or subtly vindictive ways,
cooperating or vying with one another for prestige and prominence – each
driving the other ever onwards in a quest for practical and provable knowledge
of the world around us. Without them science would not be what we know it as
today – but, in many ways, these people weren’t so different from us, and this is perhaps why
the history of science is just as important as the science itself.
A good story well told often
illuminates itself without the need for fancy gimmickry or whizzy visuals. I
was particularly struck by the sudden joy rising in Lisa Jardine’s voice as an
original copy of Hooke’s Micrographia (1665)
is produced from a shelf in the book stacks of the Royal Society. This moment
encapsulates for me the joy of historical enquiry and practical research, it
shows how books and things can fascinate us in ways which link us directly to
the past. Much the same as her passing revelation to some visiting tourists at
the start of the programme that the Monument in London, which marks the site of
the little bakery where the Great Fire of London originated one fateful night
in 1666, is in fact more than just a monument – it is also a giant scientific
instrument. Hooke designed it such that its purpose also doubled as a tube to
house a huge telescope.
Radio programmes such as The Seven Ages of Science show us how we can relate to, as much as
learn from, the past. Which is certainly no bad thing. And there are six more
programmes yet to come! – I’ll certainly stay tuned as I’m fascinated to hear/see
how this series progresses. I wonder what other inspiring insights it will
spark?
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