Crystallography on BBC Radio 4

By | November 22, 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of crystallography, the study of crystals and their structure. Developments in crystallography have touched most people’s lives, thanks to the vital role it plays in diverse scientific disciplines – from physics and chemistry, to molecular biology and mineralogy.

The history of crystallography began with the work of Johannes Kepler in the 17th century, but perhaps the most crucial leap in understanding came in the early 20th century and the discoveries of the father-and-son team the Braggs. Their work revolutionised our perception of crystals and their atomic arrangements, and led to some of the most significant scientific findings of the last century – such as revealing the structure of DNA.

There will be two broadcasts on 29th November 2012 (Thursday) on BBC Radio 4:
A live broadcast at 9am and a repeat at 9:30pm.  The repeat is a shortened version (edited from about 42 mins to about 28 minutes).
There are three options for listening other than the terrestrial radio broadcast:
(i) Live on the internet at the times above: go to the programme page at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p0s9s> and click on the “LISTEN” icon (with a picture of a small loudspeaker) towards the upper right of the page.

(ii) Using iPlayer after the first broadcast has finished. Go to the programme page at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p0s9s> and click on the “Listen now” button on the left of the picture illustrating the programme. In principle this should become available within a few minutes of the end of the second broadcast (i.e. soon after 22:00 UK time), but sometimes there is a longer delay of up to an hour. It won’t expire, so you can always listen on another day.

(iii) Download a podcast in mp3 format from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot>. This will become available
sometime after the second broadcast has finished, but it could be a day or two afterwards. These podcasts also don’t expire or disappear: you can download them years after the original broadcasts.

Options (ii) and (iii) will get you the full rather than the shortened version of the programme.

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