Great Scientists

Synopsis

Oxford historian Professor Allan Chapman presents a series on five great scientists. The programmes combine location filming, animation, comedy and drama to challenge many existing notions about these thinkers.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2004

Year of production

2003

Notes

Broadcast in 5 weekly parts on Five, beginning 12/1/04

Subjects

Science; FE

Keywords

Darwin, Charles (1809-1882); Einstein, Albert; Enlightenment; evolution; Galileo; history of science; Newton, Isaac; philosophy of science; physics; relativity theory; scientific method; Aristotle

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 2 PAL

Price

£19.99

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

150 minutes

Year

2004

Sections

Title

Aristotle

Synopsis

Aristotle, "Father of Science", was arguably the single most influential figure in the history of thought. So many of his ideas are now taken for granted - that behind the phenomena of the universe there must be some logic, comprehensible, at least in principle, by human reason. Yet in his time, this was a revolutionary proposition. Allan Chapman journeys from Oxford to the temples of ancient Greece to reconsider the philosopher and scientist whose ideas were held to be beyond question for two thousand years.

Duration

30 mins

Title

Galileo

Synopsis

Galileo Galilei spent most of his life trying to disprove the work of Aristotle. Allan Chapman travels to Venice to explore why these heretical views arose when and where they did. The film describes the revolutionary implications of Galileo’s novel scientific methods and charts the great transition from the observational science of ancient and medieval Europe to the experimental science which ushered in the modern world. This is where modern science begins.

Duration

30 mins

Title

Newton

Synopsis

Newton was one of the great heroes of the Enlightenment, celebrated by rational thinkers and political radicals of the day. His great work, ‘Principia Mathematica’, changed the way scientists thought about every physical object in the universe. His theory of the Universal Laws of Motion, which established the key ideas in physics - ‘action’, ‘reaction’, ‘inertia’ and ‘force’, applied to the whole of nature, from the atomic to the cosmic. Central to it was his most famous, and little appreciated, theory of gravity.

Duration

30 mins

Title

Darwin

Synopsis

Darwin’s epoch-making theory of evolution was seen as a threat to religious belief. Allan Chapman explains Darwin’s extraordinary discovery of how genes, and gene mixing, allow species to physically change and develop. Darwin’s great work, ‘The Origin of Species’, had an enormous impact on the Victorian world view, it inspired thinkers like Karl Marx and is still ruffling feathers today.

Duration

30 mins

Title

Einstein

Synopsis

Albert Einstein is the most famous scientist in the world. He gave us the atom bomb, the world’s most famous equation (E=mc2), and the Theory of Relativity - a work so complex that for some time only two other people could make any sense of it. Allan Chapman charts the rise of Einstein from a humble clerk in the Swiss patent office to Nobel prizewinner, and he manages to make Einstein’s incredibly complex, and earth-shattering theories, transparent and engaging.

Duration

30 mins

Sponsor

Name

Five

Notes

Previously Channel 5

Distributor

Name

Wag TV

Email

support@wagtv.com

Web

http://www.wagtv.com/index.html External site opens in new window

Phone

020 7688 1707

Address

2D Leroy House
436 Essex Road
London
N1 3QP