SH Science History Podcast

Podcast

Science History Podcast

Monthly interviews on important moments in the history of science.

Website ↗ Last published 11 November 2026 105 posts collected by Sputnik

Said on Science History Podcast

“He thinks that light is an element. He thinks calories are elements. He thinks that certain acids cannot be simplified as well. But it is a start. It is the first time that someone is trying to put together a list of elements.” — Kit Chapman, Science History Podcast
Kit Chapman · 11 Nov 2026 Listen →
“Fire is still studied to this day. I've talked to a fire scientist who said that if you go into the center of something as simple as a candle flame, even if it was just burning methane, which is as simple as we can get, it's possible to have up to 150 different compounds and molecules forming. And we don't know at any one point which one is going to be created.” — Kit Chapman, Science History Podcast
Kit Chapman · 11 Nov 2026 Listen →
“He had bankrupted two wives with his belief, which was that he could turn his own urine into gold. He was obsessed with his own urine. … He collects 1500 gallons of urine in his basement and allows it to ferment, which must have reeked the place out.” — Kit Chapman, Science History Podcast
Kit Chapman · 11 Nov 2026 Listen →
“What fascinates me as well is that so often we almost came to a technology and then we abandoned it. One of the great examples is there is a steam engine that was created in Alexandria. Just a toy. It was a novelty. If someone had realized that you could actually use that, we would have had the Industrial Revolution 2,000 years earlier.” — Kit Chapman, Science History Podcast
Kit Chapman · 11 Nov 2026 Listen →
“Alchemy becomes the first printing sensation. Now, who are you going to get to write your alchemy books? Are you going to get a boring, stuffy doctor that no one's going to read? Or are you going to get the showman who's got the razzle dazzle? It's exactly the same today why celebrity biographies sell like hot cakes when really high quality highbrow literature does maybe not as well.” — Kit Chapman, Science History Podcast
Kit Chapman · 11 Nov 2026 Listen →
“Chemistry is class warfare. It begins with people just trying to start a fire with perfumers, slaves, with artisans in Egypt. It then moves into the middle classes with doctors, with physicians, with apothecaries, with people like Paracelsus. And now it has moved into the nobility. And it's only with the nobility that we can then start filtering it through all of the population.” — Kit Chapman, Science History Podcast
Kit Chapman · 11 Nov 2026 Listen →
“That conclusion was more frightening to him than if he had found some common psychiatric disorder among them, because in placing all of these men within a broad normal range, that meant to Kelly that, number one, the ability of psychiatry to assess and treat people like this was limited. And secondly, that there were likely a lot more people like that out there in the world.” — Jack El-Hai, Science History Podcast
Jack El-Hai · 11 Oct 2026 Listen →

Hosts

Science History Podcast is hosted by Frank Arthur von Hippel and Frank von Hippel .

Recent Episodes

  1. 11 Nov 2026

    Episode 108. Alchemy: Kit Chapman

    With Kit Chapman

  2. 11 Oct 2026

    Episode 107. Psychiatry at Nuremberg: Jack El-Hai

    With Jack El-Hai

  3. 10 Sep 2026

    Episode 106. The Space Race: Leroy Chiao

    With Leroy Chiao

  4. 10 Aug 2026

    Episode 105. Curie's Elements: Dava Sobel

    With Dava Sobel

  5. 11 Jul 2026

    Episode 104. Pugwash: John Holdren

    With John Holdren

  6. 16 Jun 2026

    Episode 103. Astronomy: Sarah Alam Malik

    With Sarah Alam Malik

  7. 14 May 2026

    Episode 102. Chemicals & Children's Health: Tracey Woodruff

    With Tracey Woodruff

  8. 10 Apr 2026

    Episode 101. Longitude: Emily Akkermans

    With Dr Emily Akkermans

  9. 11 Mar 2026

    Episode 100. Bohr's Legacy: Tomas Bohr

    With Tomas Bohr

  10. 11 Feb 2026

    Episode 99. Rapa Nui's Collapse: Mike Pitts

    With Mike Pitts

  11. 10 Jan 2026

    Episode 98. Retrospective: Tom Lehrer's Mathematics

  12. 10 Dec 2025

    Episode 97. Forever Chemicals: Sharon Udasin

    With Sharon Udasin

Guests

William Lanouette (3 episodes), James Muller (3 episodes), Matthew Meselson (2 episodes), John Heilbron (2 episodes), Jaimi Dowdell (2 episodes), Neil Maher (2 episodes), Dava Sobel (2 episodes), Peter Agre (2 episodes), Mark Lytle (2 episodes), Jim Baggott , Terry Collins , Joe Schwarcz , and 82 more.