Making Science with Tom Whipple

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The Times

11 episodes

1 week ago

What connects 200 hand-holding monks, a lump of gold hidden in a beaker, and irradiated cocktails? Welcome to Making Science with Tom Whipple, Science Editor at The Times and Sunday Times. This is the podcast where history, innovation, and the unexpected collide, as we uncover jaw-dropping stories behind the scientific discoveries we take for granted.

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Natural Sciences

History,

Science

Episodes (11/11)

Making Science with Tom Whipple

Time-lords and the extra seconds

The start of the New Year in 2017 began in the usual way, with a countdown. But what happens when that countdown is eleven seconds rather than ten? In this final episode of the first series, Tom Whipple explores the evolution of time measurement, the complications a leap second can cause, and the ongoing debate among international 'time lords’ about what's to be done about it.

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1 week ago

12 minutes 1 second

Making Science with Tom Whipple

The Tree of Life

In this episode of Making Science, Tom Whipple tells the story of physician and alchemist Johannes Baptist van Helmont. In the 17th-century Van Helmont believed he had created the Philosopher's Stone, a substance that could turn base metals into gold. Whilst this might have been a pipe dream his work indirectly paved the way for a monumental scientific discovery - photosynthesis.

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2 weeks ago

13 minutes 53 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

Glow in the dark cocktails and radioactive health drinks

The Sunshine Dinner of 1904 in New York was known for its glow-in-the-dark theme, featuring illuminated decorations, paint and of course, drinks. But what made these cocktails glow? It turned out to be none other than radium. In this episode of Making Science, Tom Whipple goes back to a time when radioactive products touted alluring health benefits. What they didn’t know then, was that the substance was unstable and would prove deadly.

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3 weeks ago

9 minutes 8 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

The kilogram that lost its weight

For over a century, the kilogram was defined by a single, shiny lump of metal locked in a vault near Paris. But what happens when your definition of mass starts...losing mass? In this episode, Tom Whipple, Science Editor at The Times, unpacks the surprisingly dramatic story of the kilo - from the French Revolution’s quest for order, to a quantum reimagining of what “weight” really means. Enter the kibble balance: a machine so precise it can weigh light itself. Sort of.

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4 weeks ago

10 minutes 52 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

How do you hide a lump of gold in plain sight?

It's April in 1940. The Nazis are occupying Copenhagen. As they march through the streets, a stark realisation hits the physicist Niels Bohr. He has hours - maybe less - to make two Nobel Prize medals disappear completely. What might a substance named Aqua Regia and a humble beaker do conceal two huge lumps of gold? And bring it back again...a decade later.

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1 month ago

8 minutes 46 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

How far can bull frogs jump? (And why it matters!)

The story of a frog who broke records and confounded science. Professor Tom Roberts from Brown University spent his whole career studying the biomechanics of frog jumping to understand how muscles work. He and other scientists had determined the average bullfrog's jump to be just over 1 meter. Very impressive, until, that is, they met 'Rosie the Ribeter'. This bull frog had achieved a 2.2 meter jump at a local competition. But how? Professor Roberts was perplexed when he could repeatedly failed to replicate these results in the lab. Why was Rosie able to break records in a contest but not in the research room?

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1 month ago

11 minutes 46 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

Are friars electric?

In 1746, Antoine Nolie conducted an experiment with 200 monks to determine the speed of an electric current - by making the monks stand in a circle holding brass poles and connecting them to a large battery. What could possibly go wrong? And what would this experiment reveal about the way electrons flow?

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1 month ago

8 minutes 53 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

Islands of Ice and Straw

In this episode of Making Science, Tom Whipple delves into the intriguing science of latent heat and the thermodynamic properties of water - and how this science played a pivotal role in one of the strangest Allied schemes during World War II - a plan to create an 'iceberg aircraft carrier' known as Project Habakkuk.

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1 month ago

9 minutes 4 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

War, Stones and Metals!

When the Stone Age met the Bronze Age? It's time for Tom to explore the profound impact of alloys on a clash of Stone and Bronze Age technologies in battle. Who would have thought blending copper and tin would have such an impact on human history! How are alloys created? What properties made them useful? And what transformative role did they play in ancient toolmaking and modern engineering?

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2 months ago

9 minutes 23 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

Death rays and other would-be inventions!

In the first of the series of Making Science, Tom Whipple, Science Editor at the Times, explores the strange history of a 'death ray’ that supposedly promised to change modern warfare forever. In 1924, engineer and inventor Harry Grindell Matthews claimed to have created a beam that could stop an engine, ignite gunpowder, and incapacitate enemy soldiers from up to four miles away. Harry Grindell Matthews never revealed how his technology worked and few had seen the ray in action. So was it true? Perhaps the science of electromagnetic spectrum holds the answer.

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2 months ago

9 minutes 21 seconds

Making Science with Tom Whipple

Introducing Making Science with Tom Whipple

Welcome to Making Science with Tom Whipple, Science Editor at The Times and Sunday Times. This is the podcast about the often bizarre mixture of innovation, determination and the unexpected that collide at a point in history to make science happen. Follow us now for weekly stories on the reality of discovery.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 months ago

1 minute 42 seconds