The astrophysicist Professor Lisa Kaltenegger is like an explorer of old, but her voyage takes her far from earth, planet hunting across the universe. She is Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell University, and in her new book Alien Earths she describes the very latest discoveries of exoplanets which are the best contenders for harbouring alien life.
Claudia de Rham is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London and in her book The Beauty of Falling she tells the story of gravity. From her personal experience of diving in the ocean and freefalling over the earth, to exploring the limits of Einstein’s general theory of relativity she seeks to understand both the feeling and the fundamental nature of gravity.
If only all of physics could be so compelling! Professor Mark Fromhold is Head of Physics at Nottingham University and is campaigning for a change to the way pupils are taught, suggesting that quantum physics be incorporated into the curriculum. He argues that at present the subject is too earth-bound, and ‘dull as dishwater’.
Producer: Katy Hickman
London - villain and victim?
Lionel Shriver on life and death decisions
DH Lawrence: life and work
On Thin Ice: Glaciers, Geopolitics, and Nature's Goods
Daniel Kahneman on 'noisy' human judgement
The opioid crisis and erosion of trust
Art - plunder, power and prestige
Personal faith and the Church
What if the Incas had colonised Europe?
Nuclear destruction
Defining mental illness
Trade deals and human rights – in Africa and China
Newton: science and worldly riches
Rights and responsibilities
Understanding Melancholy
Monsters of the deep
Family struggles - from Greek tragedy to The Troubles
Living online and IRL
Empire and class, shaping Britain
The fall of Maxwell – the end of an era.
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