Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Hooke's Ideas and Methods

Allan Chapman explores Robert Hooke's revolutionary and experimental ways of working, leading to the publication of Micrographia.

Robert Hooke was one of the great experimental scientists of his day. He devised the first successful vacuum pump for Robert Boyle in 1659. This revolutionary piece of apparatus, which was a star turn at Royal Society experiment meetings, overturned Aristotle's 2000 year old dictum that 'nature abhors a vacuum'. His work with microscopes led to the publication of his best selling work, 'Micrographia'. A book so riveting that Samuel Pepys sat up until 2 in the morning reading his copy, calling it 'the most ingenious book that ever I read in my life'. Dr. Allan Chapman, from Wadham College, Oxford (Hooke's Alma Mater) charts the progress of Hooke's discoveries as one of the founding architects of modern science.

Producer: Sarah Taylor

(Repeat).

15 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Wed 7 Oct 2009 23:00
  • Wed 1 Dec 2010 23:00

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast