Babbage: Science book club
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Books are the original medium for communicating science to the masses. In a holiday special, producer Kunal Patel asks Babbage’s family of correspondents about the books that have inspired them in their careers as science journalists.
Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Rachel Dobbs, The Economist’s climate correspondent; Kenneth Cukier, our deputy executive editor; The Economist’s Emilie Steinmark; Geoff Carr, our senior editor for science and technology; and Abby Bertics, The Economist’s science correspondent.
Reading list: “The Periodic Table” by Primo Levi; “When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamín Labatut; “A Theory of Everyone” by Michael Muthukrishna; “Madame Curie” by Ève Curie; “Sociobiology” by E. O. Wilson; “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins; “Why Fish Don't Exist” by Lulu Miller; and “How Far the Light Reaches” by Sabrina Imbler.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this episode of Babbage is available to listen for free. |
| 0:03.7 | But if you want to listen every week, you'll need to be an economist subscriber. |
| 0:07.9 | For full details, search online for Economist Podcast Plus. |
| 0:15.1 | In a world of seismic change, will your business shape the future or be shaped by it? |
| 0:21.4 | How will we capture the imagination of tomorrow's consumers? |
| 0:26.5 | Overcome operational constraints to focus on future growth. |
| 0:31.2 | And unlock economic and social prosperity through environmental responsibility. |
| 0:36.7 | With EY's full spectrum of services across sectors, |
| 0:39.8 | we're all in to shape the future with confidence. |
| 0:43.1 | Start your transformation journey at EY.com slash transformation. The Economist Just a short walk away from Trafalgar Square |
| 1:06.0 | nestled in the heart of central London is an underground treasure trove. |
| 1:11.6 | This is Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton. |
| 1:25.6 | So this is from 1687. It is the work that Newton is probably best known for. |
| 1:35.2 | This is his description of the workings of the universe. Books have long held a vital place in science, and the Royal Society Library holds some of the most weird and wonderful books of all. |
| 1:51.4 | In honour of the books that have shaped, spurred and spread science over the centuries, our producer Canal Patel had a look at some of the Royal Society's more interesting tones. |
| 2:01.6 | My name is Keith Moore. I'm Head of Library at the Royal Society. |
| 2:05.6 | So here we have from 1665 Robert Hook's book, Micrographia. |
| 2:12.6 | So this is a seriously large book with great illustrations of what one might expect to see through |
| 2:19.9 | a microscope. |
| 2:21.7 | And the most famous of the lot is his drawing of the flea. |
| 2:26.8 | But I kind of like the head louse and various other things in here. Probably the most famous natural history book of all time is this one. |
| 2:41.0 | This is Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. |
... |
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