The Discovery of the Universe
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The universe has always been there, kind of, but it took intelligent life on earth billions of years to start to grapple with its nature. Carolyn Collins Peterson is a science writer who charts the progress of astronomy through the observatories used throughout history, from the earliest such as Stonehenge, to places like Birr Castle with its Leviathan telescope used by Herschel.
As always the compressed timescale of the major discoveries in astronomy left me amazed. in just a few generations we have gone from squinting at the nearest celestial bodies to sending manmade objects beyond our solar system.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone, Dan Snow here. I'm embarking on an epic road trip of England and I'm taking the podcast with me. |
| 0:06.5 | We're covering over 500 miles and 1 million years of English history, |
| 0:11.5 | stopping at the places that tell the incredible story of this country. |
| 0:18.0 | From the south coast where the Romans arrived on Britain's rugged shores |
| 0:23.5 | to the nuclear defence bunkers of the northeast. |
| 0:27.5 | We're going to hear about the monks, the rulers, bloody battles, murder and mayhem. |
| 0:32.5 | Dance Noes history is the best place to go close to history. |
| 0:36.0 | My story of England series starts on Monday 22 May. |
| 0:47.5 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dance Noes history. |
| 0:49.5 | Now, I have to forgive me, I'm fascinated by the history of science. |
| 0:52.5 | I don't know much about science. |
| 0:55.0 | I was hoping my kids would grow up to be scientists, but they're as useless as I am. |
| 0:59.5 | They know a lot about Buddhica. |
| 1:01.5 | They know a lot about the final attack of the Imperial Guard at the Battle of Waterloo. |
| 1:04.5 | Let me tell you that much. |
| 1:05.5 | They know about the world's first integrated defence network |
| 1:08.5 | instituted by RAF and doubting before the Second World War. |
| 1:11.5 | But they don't know diddly about science. |
| 1:14.5 | So they are sadly mirroring my strengths and weaknesses. |
| 1:18.5 | Anyway, enough about my failure of parents. |
| 1:21.5 | I love science and it's been a wonderful opportunity on this podcast to occasionally launch into stories about the history of science. |
| 1:28.5 | This episode is one of those. |
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