Meteorology

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2003

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss meteorology. The Book of Genesis resounds with a terrible act of vengeance, carried out by an angry God seeking to punish his people. And the mechanism with which this is carried out - a catastrophic flood which wipes out evil on earth. In fact, many ancient civilisations believed extreme meteorological phenomena like thunder and lightning, hailstones and even meteors were acts of divine intervention. Running parallel with this belief, however, was also a desire to understand and explain the natural world through rational enquiry and observation. This complex relationship – between the natural world and divinity – has fascinated philosophers, artists and scientists alike from antiquity to our own time. Aristotle, for example, coined the phrase meteorology but to what extent did he link meteorological events to the cosmos and the Gods? How did the development of instrumentation during the Renaissance aid the prediction of weather events? Why did 18th century writers such as Keats feel that these scientific advances stripped the skies of its mystique and romance? And why does meteorology continue to fascinate and mystify to this day? With Vladimir Jankovic, Wellcome Research Lecturer at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Manchester University;Richard Hamblyn, writer; Liba Taub, Director of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science at Cambridge University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, the Book of Genesis resounds with a terrible act of punishment carried out by an
0:16.0	angry god and the mechanism with which this is carried out is a catastrophic flood which
0:21.2	wipes out evil on earth.
0:23.0	Many ancient civilizations believed extreme meteorological phenomena like thunder and lightning,
0:28.0	hailstones and even meteors were acts of divine intervention. Running parallel with this belief was a desire to
0:34.0	understand and explain the natural world through rational inquiry and
0:37.2	observation. This relationship between the natural world, divinity and reason has
0:42.1	fascinated philosophers artists and scientists from antiquity
0:45.3	to our own time.
0:46.7	Aristotle, for example, coined the phrase meteorology, but to what extent did he link meteorologically
0:51.7	venture to the Cosmos and the gods.
0:54.0	How did the development of instrumentation during the Renaissance aid the prediction of weather events?
0:59.2	Why did 18th century writers such as Keats feel that the scientific advances strip the sky of its
1:05.2	mystique and romance. And why does meteorology continue to fascinate and mystifiers to this day?
1:11.6	With me to discuss this is Liebertobe, director of the Whipple Museum of the History of
1:15.4	of the Science at Cambridge University, an author of a new book called
1:18.5	Ancient Meteorology. Richard Hamlin, author of The Invention of Clouds, and Vladimir Jankovic, welcome research lecturer
1:25.2	at the Center for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Manchester University and author
1:29.4	of reading the skies.
1:30.8	Vladimir Yankovic, what are the origins of the study of meteorology?
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