Science & Technology

Electric cars seem to offer a solution to the problem of the internal combustion engine. But technological advances have other consequences. 

Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens has long been overshadowed by Isaac Newton. But he is the better example of a modern scientist. 

The long and complicated history of why there are 360 degrees in a circle.

The slippery subject of eel reproduction evaded human understanding for millennia.

The work of Elizabeth Fulhame made huge leaps in science, despite the obstacles she faced as a woman.

The pursuit of astronomical study led a Victorian woman from Surrey to the Indian foothills.

The father of modern optics could not have succeeded had he not feigned madness.

Problems with public transport are almost as old as New York itself. One proposed solution was nothing but hot air.

In this episode Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge, visits three events pivotal to the genesis of Isaac Newton's paradigm-shattering book the Principia Mathematica.