The secret scientists. Parts 1-3.

UK : BBC World Service, 2009.

1 CD (90 min.)

Part One. Al-Khalili meets Professor Peter Pormann, a specialist in the history of medicine at the Wellcome Trust. He talks about physician Mohammed Ibn Zakariya ar-Razi who produced groundbreaking work on differential diagnosis, particularly with measles and smallpox, and whose work was still being used hundreds of years later in English and French texts. Al-Khalili also talks to chemist Dr Andrea Sella who describes ho Jabir ibn Hayyan is believed to be the true father of chemistry and invented the process of sublimation, still used today in the production of freeze dried food.

Part Two. Al-Khalili meets Dr Jackie Stedall and Professor Ian Stewart who tell the story of Al-Khwarismi, the mathematician who introduced the world to the system of Hindu numerals (the numbers 0 to 9). The word 'algebra' comes from the title of one of his books. Professor Nader el-Bizri tells of Ibn al-Haytham who first realised how vision works and whose research into optics was so revolutionary that he could be seen as the father of physics rather than Isaac Newton. It is also thought that he was the father of the scientific method; a method which has long been attributed to Europe hundreds of years later.

Part Three. Al-Khalili looks at the work of Abu Rayhan Biruni whose studies in astronomy led to the calculation of the Earth's circumference with surprising accuracy. He also looks at how the Christian Crusades, the fall of the Abbasid dynasty, the invasion of the Mongols and the discovery of the New World may account for the seeming slow down of intellectual activity during the 13th century. Finally Al-Khalili explores science in the modern Muslim world and attempts to bring the scientific glories of the past to light amongst the Muslim community and worldwide.

BBC Radio