Helping to tell Story of Science
A new BBC series starts tonight on BBC2 at 9pm. Presented by Michael Mosley, The Story of Science is an ambitious project: it aims to chart the progress of science through the centuries. To make sense of this huge subject, the BBC got in touch with three leading historians of science: Pietro Corsi of Oxford University's Faculty of History, Patricia Fara at Cambridge, and Jim Enderby of the University of Sussex. They acted as consultants throughout, Pietro explains to OxSciBlog, coming up with initial ideas for the content of the shows and then reviewing scripts for every episode - arriving at something that weaves an engaging tale for TV but is also as historically accurate as possible. As well as telling the story of scientific discoveries and the people who made them, Pietro promises the series goes beyond the usual stories of apples falling on Newton's head or Darwin's discoveries on the Galapagos. He says the shows will also reveal how science has always been embedded in the society and patronage of the time and look at how science has helped make the modern world we know today. According to the series website : 'It is a tale of courage and of fear, of hope and disaster, of persistence and success.
