In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the meaning and significance of prophecy in the Abrahamic religions. Prophets, those with the ability to convey divinely-inspired revelation, are significant figures in the Hebrew Bible and later became important not just to Judaism but also to Christianity and Islam. Although these three religions share many of the same prophets, their interpretation of the nature of prophecy often differs.With:Mona Siddiqui Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of EdinburghJustin Meggitt University Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion and the Origins of Christianity at the University of CambridgeJonathan Stökl Post-Doctoral Researcher at Leiden University.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Einstein's theories of relativity. Between 1905 and 1917 Albert Einstein formulated a theoretical framework which transformed our understanding of the Universe. The twin theories of Special and General Relativity offered insights into the nature of space, time and gravitation which changed the face of modern science. Relativity resolved apparent contradictions in physics and also predicted several new phenomena, including black holes. It's regarded today as one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the twentieth century, and had an impact far beyond the world of science.With:Ruth Gregory Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Durham UniversityMartin Rees Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of CambridgeRoger Penrose Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, a famous military leader of the ancient world. Born in around 240 AD, Zenobia was Empress of the Palmyrene Empire in the Middle East. A highly educated, intelligent and militarily accomplished leader, she claimed descent from Dido and Cleopatra and spoke many languages, including Egyptian. Zenobia led a rebellion against the Roman Empire and conquered Egypt before being finally defeated by the Emperor Aurelian. Her story captured the imagination of many Renaissance writers, and has become the subject of numerous operas, poems and plays.With:Edith Hall Professor of Classics at King's College, London Kate Cooper Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester Richard Stoneman Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. One of twentieth-century France's most celebrated intellectuals, Lévi-Strauss attempted to show in his work that thought processes were a feature universal to humans, whether they lived in tribal rainforest societies or in the rich intellectual life of Paris. During the 1930s he studied native Brazilian tribes in the Amazonian jungle, but for most of his long career he preferred the study to the field. He was the leading exponent of structuralism, a school of thought which was influential for decades, and was involved in a famous debate with his friend Jean-Paul Sartre, who resisted many of his ideas. His books about the nature of myth, human thought and kinship are now seen as some of the most important anthropological texts written in the twentieth century.With:Adam Kuper Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Boston University Christina Howells Professor of French at Oxford University Vincent Debaene Associate Profess

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss cosmic rays. In 1912 the physicist Victor Hess discovered that the Earth is under constant bombardment from radiation coming from outside our atmosphere. These so-called cosmic rays have been known to cause damage to satellites and electronic devices on Earth, but most are absorbed by our atmosphere. The study of cosmic rays and their effects has led to major breakthroughs in particle physics. But today physicists are still trying to establish where these highly energetic subatomic particles come from.With:Carolin Crawford Gresham Professor of Astronomy and a member of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge Alan Watson Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Leeds Tim Greenshaw Professor of Physics at the University of Liverpool.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic Sagas. First written down in the 13th century, the sagas tell the stories of the Norse settlers of Iceland, who began to arrive on the island in the late 9th century. They contain some of the richest and most extraordinary writing of the Middle Ages, and often depict events known to have happened in the early years of Icelandic history, although there is much debate as to how much of their content is factual and how much imaginative. Full of heroes, feuds and outlaws, with a smattering of ghosts and trolls, the sagas inspired later writers including Sir Walter Scott, William Morris and WH Auden.With:Carolyne Larrington Fellow and Tutor in Medieval English Literature at St John's College, OxfordElizabeth Ashman Rowe University Lecturer in Scandinavian History at the University of CambridgeEmily Lethbridge Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Árni Magnússon Manuscripts Institute in ReykjavíkProducer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Gnosticism, a sect associated with early Christianity. The Gnostics divided the universe into two domains: the visible world and the spiritual one. They believed that a special sort of knowledge, or gnosis, would enable them to escape the evils of the physical world and allow them access to the higher spiritual realm. The Gnostics were regarded as heretics by many of the Church Fathers, but their influence was important in defining the course of early Christianity. A major archaeological discovery in Egypt in the 1940s, when a large cache of Gnostic texts were found buried in an earthenware jar, enabled scholars to learn considerably more about their beliefs.With:Martin Palmer Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and CultureCaroline Humfress Reader in History at Birkbeck College, University of LondonAlastair Logan Honorary University Fellow of the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of ExeterProducer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Essays of Michel de Montaigne. Born near Bordeaux in 1533, Montaigne retired from a life of public service aged 38 and began to write. He called these short works 'essais', or 'attempts'; they deal with an eclectic range of subjects, from the dauntingly weighty to the apparently trivial. Although he never considered himself a philosopher, he is often now seen as one of the most outstanding Sceptical thinkers of early modern Europe. His approachable style, intelligence and subtle thought have made him one of the most widely admired writers of the Renaissance.With:David Wootton Anniversary Professor of History at York UniversityTerence Cave Emeritus Professor of French Literature at the University of OxfordFelicity Green Chancellor's Fellow in History at the University of Edinburgh.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates. For several weeks in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first hostilities of the Civil War, representatives of the New Model Army and the radical Levellers met in a church in Putney to debate the future of England. There was much to discuss: who should be allowed to vote, civil liberties and religious freedom. The debates were inconclusive, but the ideas aired in Putney had a considerable influence on centuries of political thought.With:Justin Champion Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of LondonAnn Hughes Professor of Early Modern History at Keele UniversityKate Peters Fellow in History at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Amazons, a tribe of formidable female warriors first described in Greek literature. They appear in the Homeric epics and were described by Herodotus, and featured prominently in the decoration of Greek vases and public buildings. In later centuries, particularly in the Renaissance, the Amazons became a popular theme of literature and art. After the discovery of the New World, the largest river in South America was named the Amazon, since the warlike tribes inhabiting the river's margins reminded Spanish pioneers of the warriors of classical myth.With:Paul Cartledge A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge UniversityChiara Franceschini Teaching Fellow at University College London and an Academic Assistant at the Warburg InstituteCaroline Vout University Senior Lecturer in Classics and Fellow and Director of Studies at Christ's College, Cambridge.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Japan's Sakoku period, two centuries when the country deliberately isolated itself from the Western world. Sakoku began with a series of edicts in the 1630s which restricted the rights of Japanese to leave their country and expelled most of the Europeans living there. For the next two hundred years, Dutch traders were the only Westerners free to live in Japan. It was not until 1858 and the gunboat diplomacy of the American Commodore Matthew Perry that Japan's international isolation finally ended. Although historians used to think of Japan as completely isolated from external influence during this period, recent scholarship suggests that Japanese society was far less isolated from European ideas during this period than previously thought.With:Richard Bowring Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of CambridgeAndrew Cobbing Associate Professor of History at the University of NottinghamRebekah Clements Research Fellow of Queens' College and Research Associat

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the simplest and most remarkable of all molecules: water. Water is among the most abundant substances on Earth, covering more than two-thirds of the planet. Consisting of just three atoms, the water molecule is superficially simple in its structure but extraordinary in its properties. It is a rare example of a substance that can be found on Earth in gaseous, liquid and solid forms, and thanks to its unique chemical behaviour is the basis of all known life. Scientists are still discovering new things about it, such as the fact that there are at least fifteen different forms of ice.Hasok Chang Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of CambridgeAndrea Sella Professor of Chemistry at University College LondonPatricia Hunt Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Imperial College London.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer of evolutionary theory. Born in 1823, Wallace travelled extensively, charting the distribution of animal species throughout the world. This fieldwork in the Amazon and later the Malay Archipelago led him to formulate a theory of evolution through natural selection. In 1858 he sent the paper he wrote on the subject to Charles Darwin, who was spurred into the writing and publication of his own masterpiece On the Origin of Species. Wallace was also the founder of the science of biogeography and made important discoveries about the nature of animal coloration. But despite his visionary work, Wallace has been overshadowed by the greater fame of his contemporary Darwin.With:Steve Jones Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College LondonGeorge Beccaloni Curator of Cockroaches and Related Insects and Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project at the Natural History MuseumTed Benton Professor of Sociology at the University of

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Anton Chekhov. Born in 1860, Chekhov trained as a doctor and for most of his adult life divided his time between medicine and writing. Best known for plays including The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters, he is also celebrated today as one of the greatest of short story writers. His works are often powerful character studies and chronicle the changing nature of Russian society in the late nineteenth century.With:Catriona Kelly Professor of Russian at the University of OxfordCynthia Marsh Emeritus Professor of Russian Drama and Literature at the University of NottinghamRosamund Bartlett Founding Director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation and former Reader in Russian at the University of Durham.Producer: Thomas Morris.

In a programme first broadcast in 2013, Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss absolute zero, the lowest conceivable temperature.  In the early eighteenth century the French physicist Guillaume Amontons suggested that temperature had a lower limit.  The subject of low temperature became a fertile field of research in the nineteenth century, and today we know that this limit - known as absolute zero - is approximately minus 273 degrees Celsius.  It is impossible to produce a temperature exactly equal to absolute zero, but today scientists have come to within a billionth of a degree.  At such low temperatures physicists have discovered a number of strange new phenomena including superfluids, liquids capable of climbing a vertical surface.With:Simon Schaffer Professor of the History of Science at the University of CambridgeStephen Blundell Professor of Physics at the University of OxfordNicola Wilkin Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the University of BirminghamProducer: Thomas Morris

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian anthropologist and archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Over many years he amassed thousands of ethnographic and archaeological objects, some of which formed the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. Inspired by the work of Charles Darwin, Pitt-Rivers believed that human technology evolved in the same way as living organisms, and devoted much of his life to exploring this theory. He was also a pioneering archaeologist whose meticulous records of major excavations provided a model for later scholars. With:Adam Kuper Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Boston UniversityRichard Bradley Professor in Archaeology at the University of ReadingDan Hicks University Lecturer & Curator of Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford.Producer: Thomas Morris.

David Bradshaw, John Bowen and Ann Pasternak Slater join Melvyn Bragg to discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall. Set partly in a substandard boys' public school, the novel is a vivid, often riotous portrait of 1920s Britain. Its themes, including modernity, religion and fashionable society, came to dominate Waugh's later fiction, but its savage wit and economy of style were entirely new. Published when Waugh was 24, the book was immediately celebrated for its vicious satire and biting humour.With:David Bradshaw Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, OxfordJohn Bowen Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of YorkAnn Pasternak Slater Senior Research Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Jane Francis, Richard Corfield and Carrie Lear join Melvyn Bragg to discuss ice ages, periods when a reduction in the surface temperature of the Earth has resulted in ice sheets at the Poles. Although the term 'ice age' is commonly associated with prehistoric eras when much of northern Europe was covered in ice, we are in fact currently in an ice age which began up to 40 million years ago. Geological evidence indicates that there have been several in the Earth's history, although their precise cause is not known. Ice ages have had profound effects on the geography and biology of our planet.With:Jane Francis Professor of Paleoclimatology at the University of LeedsRichard Corfield Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford UniversityCarrie Lear Senior Lecturer in Palaeoceanography at Cardiff University.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Angie Hobbs, David Sedley and James Warren join Melvyn Bragg to discuss Epicureanism, the system of philosophy based on the teachings of Epicurus and founded in Athens in the fourth century BC. Epicurus outlined a comprehensive philosophical system based on the idea that everything in the Universe is constructed from two phenomena: atoms and void. At the centre of his philosophy is the idea that the goal of human life is pleasure, by which he meant not luxury but the avoidance of pain. His followers were suspicious of marriage and politics but placed great emphasis on friendship. Epicureanism became influential in the Roman world, particularly through Lucretius's great poem De Rerum Natura, which was rediscovered and widely admired in the Renaissance.With:Angie Hobbs Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of SheffieldDavid Sedley Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of CambridgeJames Warren Reader in Ancient Philosophy at the University of CambridgePro

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the War of 1812, the conflict between America and the British Empire sometimes referred to as the second American War of Independence. In June 1812, President James Madison declared war on Britain, angered by the restrictions Britain had imposed on American trade, the Royal Navy's capture of American sailors and British support for Native Americans. After three years of largely inconclusive fighting, the conflict finally came to an end with the Treaty of Ghent which, among other things, helped to hasten the abolition of the global slave trade. Although the War of 1812 is often overlooked, historians say it had a profound effect on the USA and Canada's sense of national identity, confirming the USA as an independent country. America's national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner began life as a poem written after its author, Francis Scott Key, witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. The war also led to Native Americans losing hundreds