In Our Time: Science

The Natural Order


Listen Later

Melvyn Bragg examines the science of taxonomy. The Argentinean author Jose Luis Borges illustrated the problematic nature of scientific classification when he quoted from an ancient Chinese Encyclopaedia, the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. On these remote pages, in a complete absence of Phylum, Genus and Species, animals are divided into: “(a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs” and “those that tremble as if they were mad” ending with “those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush”, “others”, “those that have just broken the flower vase” and “those that at a distance resemble flies.”Perhaps our own system of classifying the natural world might seem just as fantastical to a more knowing mind, and perhaps underlying the Linnaean system that homo sapiens currently finds useful there are prejudices of our own which distort the scientific truth. How does natural history classify the ‘natural order’?With Colin Tudge, writer, scientist and author of The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures that Have Ever Lived; Dr Sandy Knapp, Research Botanist, Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, London; Henry Gee, Senior Editor of Nature and author of Deep Time: Cladistics, the Revolution in Evolution.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

In Our Time: ScienceBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

684 ratings


More shows like In Our Time: Science

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,409 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,839 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,686 Listeners

5 Live Science Podcast by BBC Radio 5 Live

5 Live Science Podcast

109 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,827 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,072 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

342 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

891 Listeners

Discovery by BBC World Service

Discovery

956 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,930 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,065 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,893 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

595 Listeners

In Our Time: Religion by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Religion

282 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

860 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

245 Listeners

Unexpected Elements by BBC World Service

Unexpected Elements

353 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

404 Listeners

Curious Cases by BBC Radio 4

Curious Cases

820 Listeners

CrowdScience by BBC World Service

CrowdScience

474 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

740 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,969 Listeners

Why This Universe? by Dan Hooper, Shalma Wegsman

Why This Universe?

367 Listeners