The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 2
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. Programme two begins in the coffee house Isaac Newton and the fellows of the early 18th century frequented. At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, we learn how Newton’s feud with the Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed tested the lines between government-funded research and public access. In the age of exploration, senior fellows accompany naval expeditions, such as Cook’s expedition to Tahiti and subsequent discovery of Australia. International relations are fostered between scientists such as Benjamin Franklin, whose house in London serves as live-in lab and de facto American embassy. By the end of the century the President, Sir Joseph Banks, successfully embeds the Royal Society in the imperial bureaucratic hub of the new Somerset House. But while senior fellows concentrated on foreign fields, a more radical, dissident science and manufacturing base wrought the Industrial Revolution right under their noses.
Related episodes
-
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 1
4 Jan, 2010 500 Science -
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3
6 Jan, 2010 500 Science -
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 4
7 Jan, 2010 500 Science -
The Royal Society
23 Mar, 2006 500 Science -
The Lunar Society
5 Jun, 2003 500 Science -
The Cavendish Family in Science
20 May, 2010 500 Science -
Robert Boyle
12 Jun, 2014 540 Chemistry -
The Scientific Method
26 Jan, 2012 500 Science -
Astronomy and Empire
4 May, 2006 520 Astronomy -
Early Geology
12 Apr, 2012 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Baconian Science
2 Apr, 2009 500 Science -
Calculus
24 Sep, 2009 510 Mathematics -
Johannes Kepler
29 Dec, 2016 520 Astronomy -
The Scientist
24 Oct, 2002 500 Science -
Michael Faraday
24 Dec, 2015 530 Physics -
Science in the 20th century
5 Nov, 1998 500 Science -
Tycho Brahe
2 Feb, 2023 520 Astronomy -
Robert Hooke
18 Feb, 2016 500 Science -
The Laws of Motion
3 Apr, 2008 530 Physics -
William and Caroline Herschel
11 Nov, 2021 520 Astronomy
Programme ID: b00pk9s1
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pk9s1
Auto-category: 509 (Historical, geographic, persons treatment of science)