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In Our Time

In Our Time

BBC Radio 4

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

969 - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
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  • 969 - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German physicist who, at the age of 23 and while still a student, effectively created quantum mechanics for which he later won the Nobel Prize. Werner Heisenberg made this breakthrough in a paper in 1925 when, rather than starting with an idea of where atomic particles were at any one time, he worked backwards from what he observed of atoms and their particles and the light they emitted, doing away with the idea of their continuous orbit of the nucleus and replacing this with equations. This was momentous and from this flowed what’s known as his Uncertainty Principle, the idea that, for example, you can accurately measure the position of an atomic particle or its momentum, but not both.

    With

    Fay Dowker Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London

    Harry Cliff Research Fellow in Particle Physics at the University of Cambridge

    And

    Frank Close Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at the University of Oxford

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Philip Ball, Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different (Vintage, 2018)

    John Bell, ‘Against 'measurement'’ (Physics World, Vol 3, No 8, 1990)

    Mara Beller, Quantum Dialogue: The Making of a Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2001)

    David C. Cassidy, Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, And The Bomb (Bellevue Literary Press, 2010)

    Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (first published 1958; Penguin Classics, 2000)

    Carlo Rovelli, Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics (Penguin, 2022)

    Thu, 28 Mar 2024
  • 968 - The Sack of Rome 1527

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous assault of an army of the Holy Roman Emperor on the city of Rome in 1527. The troops soon broke through the walls of this holy city and, with their leader shot dead early on, they brought death and destruction to the city on an epic scale. Later writers compared it to the fall of Carthage or Jerusalem and soon the mass murder, torture, rape and looting were followed by disease which was worsened by starvation and opened graves. It has been called the end of the High Renaissance, a conflict between north and south, between Lutherans and Catholics, and a fulfilment of prophecy of divine vengeance and, perhaps more persuasively, a consequence of military leaders not feeding or paying their soldiers other than by looting.

    With

    Stephen Bowd Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh

    Jessica Goethals Associate Professor of Italian at the University of Alabama

    And

    Catherine Fletcher Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Stephen Bowd, Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers during the Italian Wars (Oxford University Press, 2018)

    Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography (Penguin Classics, 1999)

    Benvenuto Cellini (trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella), My Life (Oxford University Press, 2009)

    André Chastel (trans. Beth Archer), The Sack of Rome 1527 (Princeton University Press, 1983

    Catherine Fletcher, The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance (Bodley Head, 2020)

    Kenneth Gouwens and Sheryl E. Reiss (eds), The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture (Routledge, 2005)

    Francesco Guicciardini (trans. Sidney Alexander), The History of Italy (first published 1561; Princeton University Press, 2020)

    Luigi Guicciardini (trans. James H. McGregor), The Sack of Rome (first published 1537; Italica Press, 2008)

    Judith Hook, The Sack of Rome (2nd edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

    Geoffrey Parker, Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019)

    Thu, 21 Mar 2024
  • 967 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lewis Carroll's book which first appeared in print in 1865 with illustrations by John Tenniel. It has since become one of the best known works in English, captivating readers who follow young Alice as she chases a white rabbit, pink eyed, in a waistcoat with pocket watch, down a rabbit hole that becomes a well and into wonderland. There she meets the Cheshire Cat, the Hatter, the March Hare, the Mock Turtle and more, all the while growing smaller and larger, finally outgrowing everyone at the trial of Who Stole the Tarts from the Queen of Hearts and exclaiming 'Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!'

    With

    Franziska Kohlt Leverhulme Research Fellow in the History of Science at the University of Leeds and the Inaugural Carrollian Fellow of the University of Southern California

    Kiera Vaclavik Professor of Children’s Literature and Childhood Culture at Queen Mary, University of London

    And

    Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Professor of English Literature at Magdalen College, University of Oxford

    Producer: Simon Tillotson

    Reading list:

    Kate Bailey and Simon Sladen (eds), Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser (V&A Publishing, 2021)

    Gillian Beer, Alice in Space: The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis Carroll (University of Chicago Press, 2016)

    Will Brooker, Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll and Alice in Popular Culture (Continuum, 2004)

    Humphrey Carpenter, Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children’s Literature (first published 1985; Faber and Faber, 2009)

    Lewis Carroll (introduced by Martin Gardner), The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000)

    Gavin Delahunty and Christoph Benjamin Schulz (eds), Alice in Wonderland Through the Visual Arts (Tate Publishing, 2011)

    Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland (Harvill Secker, 2015)

    Colleen Hill, Fairy Tale Fashion (Yale University Press, 2016)

    Franziska Kohlt, Alice through the Wonderglass: The Surprising Histories of a Children's Classic (Reaktion, forthcoming 2025) Franziska Kohlt and Justine Houyaux (eds.), Alice: Through the Looking-Glass: A Companion (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2024)

    Charlie Lovett, Lewis Carroll: Formed by Faith (University of Virginia Press, 2022)

    Elizabeth Sewell, The Field of Nonsense (first published 1952; Dalkey Archive Press, 2016)

    Kiera Vaclavik, 'Listening to the Alice books' (Journal of Victorian Culture, Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2021)

    Diane Waggoner, Lewis Carroll's Photography and Modern Childhood (Princeton University Press 2020)

    Edward Wakeling, The Man and his Circle (IB Tauris, 2014)

    Edward Wakeling, The Photographs of Lewis Carroll: A Catalogue Raisonné (University of Texas Press, 2015)

    Thu, 14 Mar 2024
  • 966 - Hormones

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the chemical signals coursing through our bodies throughout our lives, produced in separate areas and spreading via the bloodstream. We call these 'hormones' and we produce more than 80 of them of which the best known are arguably oestrogen, testosterone, adrenalin, insulin and cortisol. On the whole hormones operate without us being immediately conscious of them as their goal is homeostasis, maintaining the levels of everything in the body as required without us having to think about them first. Their actions are vital for our health and wellbeing and influence many different aspects of the way our bodies work.

    With

    Sadaf Farooqi Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge

    Rebecca Reynolds Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh

    And

    Andrew Bicknell Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading

    Produced by Victoria Brignell

    Reading list:

    Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (first published 1962; Penguin Classics, 2000)

    Stephen Nussey and Saffron Whitehead, Endocrinology: An Integrated Approach (BIOS Scientific Publishers; 2001)

    Aylinr Y. Yilmaz, Comprehensive Introduction to Endocrinology for Novices (Independently published, 2023)

    Thu, 07 Mar 2024
  • 965 - The Hanseatic League

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hanseatic League or Hansa which dominated North European trade in the medieval period. With a trading network that stretched from Iceland to Novgorod via London and Bruges, these German-speaking Hansa merchants benefitted from tax exemptions and monopolies. Over time, the Hansa became immensely influential as rulers felt the need to treat it well. Kings and princes sometimes relied on loans from the Hansa to finance their wars and an embargo by the Hansa could lead to famine. Eventually, though, the Hansa went into decline with the rise in the nation state’s power, greater competition from other merchants and the development of trade across the Atlantic.

    With

    Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Amsterdam

    Georg Christ Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Manchester

    And

    Sheilagh Ogilvie Chichele Professor of Economic History at All Souls College, University of Oxford

    Producer: Victoria Brignell

    Reading list:

    James S. Amelang and Siegfried Beer, Public Power in Europe: Studies in Historical Transformations (Plus-Pisa University Press, 2006), especially `Trade and Politics in the Medieval Baltic: English Merchants and England’s Relations to the Hanseatic League 1370–1437`

    Nicholas R. Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich: Trade and Industry (Boydell & Brewer, 2011)

    B. Ayers, The German Ocean: Medieval Europe around the North Sea (Equinox, 2016)

    H. Brand and P. Brood, The German Hanse in Past & Present Europe: A medieval league as a model for modern interregional cooperation? (Castel International Publishers, 2007)

    Wendy R. Childs, The Trade and Shipping of Hull, 1300-1500 (East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1990)

    Alexander Cowan, Hanseatic League: Oxford Bibliographies (Oxford University Press, 2010)

    Philippe Dollinger, The German Hansa (Macmillan, 1970)

    John D. Fudge, Cargoes, Embargoes and Emissaries: The Commercial and Political Interaction of England and the German Hanse, 1450-1510 (University of Toronto Press, 1995)

    Donald J. Harreld, A Companion to the Hanseatic League (Brill, 2015)

    T.H. Lloyd, England and the German Hanse, 1157 – 1611: A Study of their Trade and Commercial Diplomacy (first published 1991; Cambridge University Press, 2002)

    Giampiero Nigro (ed.), Maritime networks as a factor in European integration (Fondazione Istituto Internazionale Di Storia Economica “F. Datini” Prato, University of Firenze, 2019), especially ‘Maritime Networks and Premodern Conflict Management on Multiple Levels. The Example of Danzig and the Giese Family’ by Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz

    Sheilagh Ogilvie, Institutions and European Trade: Merchant Guilds, 1000-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

    Paul Richards (ed.), Six Essays in Hanseatic History (Poppyland Publishing, 2017)

    Paul Richards, King’s Lynn and The German Hanse 1250-1550: A Study in Anglo-German Medieval Trade and Politics (Poppyland Publishing, 2022)

    Stephen H. Rigby, The Overseas Trade of Boston, 1279-1548 (Böhlau Verlag, 2023)

    Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz and Stuart Jenks (eds.), The Hanse in Medieval & Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2012) Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, ‘The late medieval and early modern Hanse as an institution of conflict management’ (Continuity and Change 32/1, Cambridge University Press, 2017)

    Thu, 29 Feb 2024
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