28 min listen
The Photon
ratings:
Length:
45 minutes
Released:
Feb 12, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the photon, one of the most enigmatic objects in the Universe. Generations of scientists have struggled to understand the nature of light. In the late nineteenth century it seemed clear that light was an electromagnetic wave. But the work of physicists including Planck and Einstein shed doubt on this theory. Today scientists accept that light can behave both as a wave and a particle, the latter known as the photon. Understanding light in terms of photons has enabled the development of some of the most important technology of the last fifty years.
With:
Frank Close
Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford
Wendy Flavell
Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester
Susan Cartwright
Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
With:
Frank Close
Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford
Wendy Flavell
Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester
Susan Cartwright
Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Released:
Feb 12, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Goethe and the Science of the Enlightenment: Melvyn Bragg assesses the scientific legacy of the 18th century German poet Goethe. by In Our Time: Science