The Essay: From the Source

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: From the Source: The Power of the Thames

Power and Glory

The Power of the Thames

From the Source

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, From the Source, The Power of the Thames

Helen Czerski shares a physicist's view of the River Thames

Stand knee-deep in a river and consider the physics. Water presses against you, light reflects upon the surface. Helen Czerski explains the forces that govern life in the Thames.

Stand knee-deep in a river and consider the energy flow. Water presses against you, light reflects upon the surface. What else can you feel? Helen Czerski of University College London views the Thames with the eyes of a physicist. At low tide she takes Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough for a wade through the surprisingly clean waters separating Brentford from Kew Gardens.  

How would the river look if embankments were removed and channels breached? Why do islands form and persist? Where does each drop of Thames water come from? Why can the river flow east and west at the same time?

You may never view the Thames in quite the same way again.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough presents five Essays from the banks of British rivers.

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