A lively chat about the history of radiation

By Hamish Johnston

There was more stimulating discussion about the history of physics on BBC Radio 4 this morning.

Melvyn Bragg was joined by physicists Jim Al-Khalili and Frank Close, and historian Frank James for a lively chat about the history of electromagnetic radiation.

The team began with a discussion of Newton’s particle theory of light and moved swiftly on to the early 19th century and Thomas Young’s double slit experiment – which established the wave nature of light…

…but that’s when I bumped into a colleague who was also walking to work and stopped listening!

According to the BBC website – where you can listen to the discussion on line – the trio then traced the histroy of electromagnetic radiation through the work of Michael Faraday, Henri Becquerel, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford and others.

And if your are wondering if you can listen to other radio programmes about physics on Radio 4, just click here for a choice of 20.