Ancient Atoms

Available for 29 days

Jim Al-Khalili is a theoretical physicist and as a science communicator he knows the value of metaphors and imagery to bring theories and equations to life. Translating them into stories that capture the imagination, turning the inconceivable and the obscure into the familiar. The story of the Atom begins over two thousand years ago, long before laboratories and particle accelerators, when humans first began musing about the nature of matter. In this episode Jim explores the language, literature and metaphor that shaped our earliest atomic visions, from the philosophy of ancient Greece to the flowering of the Renaissance; from Shakespeare’s tragedies to the first wooden ball-and-stick models. Contributors: Emily Wilson - Author, translator and professor of Classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania Natalie Elliot - Academic at St Johns university Santa Fe Frank Close - Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at University of Oxford Carlo Rovelli - Poet, writer and Theoretical Physicist Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced by Emily Bird Executive Producer Sasha Feachem A BBC Studios Production