Science Stories

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Factual: Science & Nature

Surprising stories from the history of science told by Naomi Alderman and Philip Ball.

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Science Stories: The duchess who gatecrashed science

The Engine That Nearly Ran Out of Steam

The duchess who gatecrashed science

BBC Radio 4 - Science Stories, The duchess who gatecrashed science

Margaret Cavendish and the birth of the scientific method.

Naomi Alderman looks at how Margaret Cavendish got entangled in the birth of the scientific method.

In the spring of 1667 Samuel Pepys queued repeatedly with crowds of Londoners and waited for hours just to catch a glimpse of aristocrat writer and thinker Margaret Cavendish. 

Twice he was frustrated and couldn't spot her, but eventually she made a grand visit to meet the Fellows of the newly formed Royal Society. She was the first woman ever to visit.

Pepys watched as they received her with gritted teeth and fake smiles. 

They politely showed her air pumps, magnets and microscopes, and she politely professed her amazement, then left in her grand carriage. 

Naomi Alderman asks what it was it about this celebrity poet, playwright, author, and thinker that so fascinated and yet also infuriated these men of the Restoration elite? 

Part of the answer strikes right at the core of what we now call the scientific method. 

Producer: Alex Mansfield

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