28 min listen
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3
ratings:
Length:
42 minutes
Released:
Jan 6, 2010
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
As part of the BBC's year of science programming, Melvyn Bragg looks at the history of the oldest scientific learned society of them all: the Royal Society. The 19th century blooms scientifically with numerous alternative, specialist learned societies and associations, all threatening the Royal Society's pre-eminence. Attempts to reform the membership criteria - marking scientific leadership's painful transition from patronage to expertise - are troubled, and organisations such as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now the BSA) excite and enliven scientific discourse outside of London. Science becomes a realistic career and a path of improvement, and by the time HG Wells writes science fiction at the end of the 19th century, there are sufficient numbers of interested, informed readers to suggest that Edwardian society contained the beginnings of a scientific society.
Released:
Jan 6, 2010
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Neuroscience in the 20th century: Melvyn Bragg examines the little we know and what we don’t yet know about the brain. by In Our Time: Science