The Photon
12 Feb, 2015
530 Physics
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the photon, one of the most enigmatic objects in the Universe. Generations of scientists have struggled to understand the nature of light. In the late nineteenth century it seemed clear that light was an electromagnetic wave. But the work of physicists including Planck and Einstein shed doubt on this theory. Today scientists accept that light can behave both as a wave and a particle, the latter known as the photon. Understanding light in terms of photons has enabled the development of some of the most important technology of the last fifty years.
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website
Guests
- Frank Close
15 episodes
Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford -
Wendy Flavell No other episodes
Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester - Susan Cartwright
2 episodes
Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield
Reading list
-
The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
Frank Close Google Books → -
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
Richard Feynman Google Books → -
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality
Manjit Kumar Google Books →
Related episodes
-
The Speed of Light
30 Nov, 2006 530 Physics -
Radiation
12 Nov, 2009 530 Physics -
Dark Matter
12 Mar, 2015 520 Astronomy -
The Electron
29 Sep, 2022 530 Physics -
The Vacuum of Space
30 Apr, 2009 530 Physics -
The Neutrino
14 Apr, 2011 530 Physics -
Theories of Everything
25 Mar, 2004 530 Physics -
Maxwell
2 Oct, 2003 530 Physics -
Grand Unified Theory
24 Feb, 2000 530 Physics -
Relativity
6 Jun, 2013 530 Physics
Programme ID: b051vlpf
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b051vlpf
Auto-category: 535 (Light & optics)
Hello (First sentence from this episode)
Hello, what is light?