Catastrophism
In Our Time30 Jan 2014

Catastrophism

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Catastrophism, the idea that natural disasters have had a significant influence in moulding the Earth's geological features. In 1822 William Buckland, the first reader of Geology at the University of Oxford, published his famous Reliquae Diluvianae, in which he ascribed most of the fossil record to the effects of Noah's flood. Charles Lyell in his Principles of Geology challenged these writings, arguing that geological change was slow and gradual, and that the processes responsible could still be seen at work today - a school of thought known as Uniformitarianism. But in the 1970s the idea that natural catastrophes were a major factor in the Earth's geology was revived and given new respectability by the discovery of evidence of a gigantic asteroid impact 65 million years ago, believed by many to have resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

With:

Andrew Scott Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London

Jan Zalasiewicz Senior Lecturer in Geology at the University of Leicester

Leucha Veneer Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Episoder(1084)

Archaea

Archaea

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of the 20th century: the archaea microorganisms. In the 1970s the American microbiologist Carl Woese (1928-2012) reali...

9 Apr 53min

Margaret Beaufort

Margaret Beaufort

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the woman who, as a child bride, became mother to the boy who would eventually become the first king in the Tudor dynasty. Lady Margaret Beaufort (c1443-1509) was twelv...

2 Apr 54min

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the exchange of cultures and biology across the Atlantic and Pacific after 1492. That was when Columbus reached the Bahamas, a time when Europe had no potatoes, tomatoe...

26 Mar 52min

John Keats

John Keats

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the short life and lasting works of Keats (1795-1821), who in one year wrote some of the most loved poems in English. Among these are Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Gre...

19 Mar 48min

The Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the laws that Hammurabi (c1810 - c1750 BC), King of Babylon, had carved into a black basalt pillar in present day Iraq and which, since its rediscovery in 1901 in prese...

12 Mar 49min

Henry IV Part 1

Henry IV Part 1

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most successful of Shakespeare's plays in his own time. Written with no Part 2 in mind as 'Henry the Fourth', the play explores ideas about who can be a legi...

5 Mar 51min

The Roman Arena

The Roman Arena

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the countless venues across the Roman Empire which for over five hundred years drew the biggest crowds both in the Republic and under the Emperors. The shows there deli...

26 Feb 50min

The Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Ev...

19 Feb 58min

Populært innen Historie

rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-katastrofe
henrettelsespodden
historier-som-endret-norge
rss-historiske-romanser-svik-drap-og-kjarlighet
med-egne-oyne
aftenposten-historie
historier-som-endret-verden
rss-benadet
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
rss-frontkjemperne
sektledere
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
rss-gamle-greier
rss-bisarr-historie
lille-helvete
taakeprat
liberal-halvtime
historiepodden
rss-historier-fra-gudbrandsdalen