Science: A Peculiar History

Gerbert becomes the Archbishop of Reims (sort of), and gets recruited into Otto's attempt to restore the Roman Empire. He also builds an astronomical timepiece, and answers a question about the area of a triangle. 

Gerbert impresses Emperor Otto II, who makes him the abbot of an important monastery in Northern Italy (where the local clergy are in the habit of plundering each other's churches). He gets tangled up in the politics of Franco-Imperial relations, but still finds the time (according to William of Malmesbury) to build a powerful tool for telling the future.

Gerbert starts a new job in Reims, where he manufactures various spheres, and introduces an ingenious system of mathematical notation that he came across in Catalonia.

An obscure monk from 10th-Century France begins his career as a mathematician and possibly (depending on who you ask) a sorcerer, when he leaves his monastery to study in Spain.

Fundamentalists attempt to capitalise on the momentum from the Scopes Trial to pass "monkey laws" in more states. But as the 20th Century goes on, new legal precedents force them to develop new strategies in response.

With the trial over, William Jennings Bryan takes his undelivered courtroom speech on a tour of Tennessee, Scopes weighs up his career options and incinerates unopened fan-mail, and the lawyers attempt to resolve their personal differences in time for the appeal.

Going into Day 7 of the Scopes Trial, the defence's expert witnesses have not been allowed to testify, leaving them with no evidence whatsoever. But Clarence Darrow has a plan to call a surprise witness - a "Bible Expert".

The Monkey Trial continues - featuring dramatic speeches from Bryan and Malone, a less dramatic speech from William Jennings Bryan Jr., and a poetry competition in a London newspaper.

John Thomas Scopes, a schoolteacher from Dayton, Tennessee, goes on trial, accused of illegally teaching his students the Theory of Evolution. With the eyes of the nation and even the world turned to Dayton, Tennessee, notorious defence attorney Clarence Darrow interrogates an expert witness on the question of the taxonomic classification of whales.

With the ACLU planning to challenge the Butler Act in court, the Dayton businessman George Rappleyea sees an opportunity to put his town in the spotlight.