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Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science

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Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science

By: Bill Bryson
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About this listen

Sunday Times best-selling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson, teams up with The Science Museum to celebrate the ideas and inventions of the incurably curious.

Across this five-episode series, Bill Bryson, with the help of The Science Museum's curators, takes us object-by-object through some of the museum's lesser known inventions and discoveries - and the human stories behind them.

Discover how a teenage inventor, a pig's head, a lump of plywood and a famous British record label made medical history or how some inventions simply happen by accident. This 'museum for your ears' looks at how experimentation, competition, hard work and a desire to change our lives for the better have contributed to the progress of mankind.

This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 5 episodes to your Library now.

©2017 Audible, Ltd. (P)2017 Audible, Ltd. History & Culture Innovations
Episodes
  • Ep. 1: Mapping the Earth

    Ep. 1: Mapping the Earth
    Feb 27 2018

    An object that helped create the first map of Britain and one at the forefront of climate-change research. Bill tells the stories of the Great Theodolite that was used on the principle triangulation of Britain, and AATSR (Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer) that measures the temperature of the sea from space.

    Both objects tell a story about why collaboration is so important in the field of scientific discovery from the teams that put together the first maps to the international fight against climate change. He is joined in this episode by Alex Rose, curator of Earth Sciences at the Science Museum.

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    16 mins
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  • Ep. 2: The Pioneers of Radio

    Ep. 2: The Pioneers of Radio
    Feb 27 2018
    Bill tells the story of the Italian Navy Detector that was devised by a humble scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose, who could be regarded as one of India's greatest minds. And the more famous, Guillermo Marconi, and his quest to invent the Marconi Short-Wave Beam Transmitter. He is joined by John Liffen, the Science Museum's Curator of Communications.
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    22 mins
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  • Ep. 3: Life-Saving Clocks

    Ep. 3: Life-Saving Clocks
    Feb 27 2018
    Bill is joined by David Rooney, the Science Museum's Curator of Time, Navigation and Transport, who tells the story of the John Harrison Clock and the inventor's quest to solve the longitude problem.
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    14 mins
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All stars
Most relevant
Very Interesting. Great encouragement to young people to study science and think out of the box, especially young women; as 4 of the 5 curators were women 😀

Very Interesting

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I'm enjoying the human stories and nuggets of information about scientific discoveries curated by the science museum in London and Bill Bryson, delivered by Bill Bryson in his unmistakable and brilliant story telling style!

Enjoyable nuggets of science discovery

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Some really interesting information in these episodes.
Although I must admit, I do find Bill Bryson's voice a little dull.

Very interesting.

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What can I say
...I love museums...I love podcasts...I love audio...I love this man's voice = bliss

Always good to hear his voice

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Really enjoyed it hopefully we will get more in the future fingers crossed for that

Great series

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