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Hello, what did these things have in common?

Fireworks, wood block printing, canal lock gates, kites, the wheelbarrow, chain suspension

bridges and the magnetic compass?

The answer is that they were all invented in China, a country that

right through our Middle Ages maintain a cultural and technological

sophistication that made foreign dignitaries flock to its imperial courts for

trade and favour. But then, around 1700, the flow of ingenuity

began to dry up, and even reverse as Europe bore the fruits of the scientific revolution

back across the globe. Why did modern science develop in Europe when China seemed

so much better place to achieve it? This is called a Needham question, after Joseph Needham,

the 20th century British signologist who did more perhaps than anyone else to try and explain it.

But did Joseph Needham give a satisfactory answer to the question that bears his name?

Why did China's early technological brilliance not lead to the development of modern signs and how did

momentous inventions like gunpowder and printing enter Chinese society with Balia Ripple

and yet revolutionize the warring states of Europe.

With me to discuss Chinese science and the Needham question

are Tim Barrett, professor of East Asian history at SARS,

Francis Wood, head of Chinese collections of the British Library,

and Chris Cullen,

director of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge.

...