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Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science

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Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science

By: Bill Bryson
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About this listen

Sunday Times best-selling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson, teams up with The Science Museum to celebrate the ideas and inventions of the incurably curious.

Across this five-episode series, Bill Bryson, with the help of The Science Museum's curators, takes us object-by-object through some of the museum's lesser known inventions and discoveries - and the human stories behind them.

Discover how a teenage inventor, a pig's head, a lump of plywood and a famous British record label made medical history or how some inventions simply happen by accident. This 'museum for your ears' looks at how experimentation, competition, hard work and a desire to change our lives for the better have contributed to the progress of mankind.

This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 5 episodes to your Library now.

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Episodes
  • Ep. 1: Mapping the Earth

    Ep. 1: Mapping the Earth
    Feb 27 2018

    An object that helped create the first map of Britain and one at the forefront of climate-change research. Bill tells the stories of the Great Theodolite that was used on the principle triangulation of Britain, and AATSR (Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer) that measures the temperature of the sea from space.

    Both objects tell a story about why collaboration is so important in the field of scientific discovery from the teams that put together the first maps to the international fight against climate change. He is joined in this episode by Alex Rose, curator of Earth Sciences at the Science Museum.

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    16 mins
    Free with 30-day trial
  • Ep. 2: The Pioneers of Radio

    Ep. 2: The Pioneers of Radio
    Feb 27 2018
    Bill tells the story of the Italian Navy Detector that was devised by a humble scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose, who could be regarded as one of India's greatest minds. And the more famous, Guillermo Marconi, and his quest to invent the Marconi Short-Wave Beam Transmitter. He is joined by John Liffen, the Science Museum's Curator of Communications.
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    22 mins
    Free with 30-day trial
  • Ep. 3: Life-Saving Clocks

    Ep. 3: Life-Saving Clocks
    Feb 27 2018
    Bill is joined by David Rooney, the Science Museum's Curator of Time, Navigation and Transport, who tells the story of the John Harrison Clock and the inventor's quest to solve the longitude problem.
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    14 mins
    Free with 30-day trial
All stars
Most relevant  
Insights into the science behind everyday life in a compact and convenient format. Great little stories.

Science Bites

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I’m a Bill Bryson fan so my opinion is biased, however, anything he pens is interesting informative and entertaining and this is no exception.

Bryson is Bryson. Brilliant

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Without being able to actually see the instruments spoken about, the description and the explanation of their uses and their contribution to today's technologies is just so interesting and amazing. A very interesting listen.

Fascinating!

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i would have liked more info on each topic. LOVE listening to Bill. he understand how we learn .

Good learning for non science background

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Bill Bryson makes difficult subjects easier to understand. He , and his guests speak very clearly

Review

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worth a listen, free and educational and Bill Bryson, win win . what have you got to lose.

Interesting.

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more please very educational and entertaining bill Bryson is a great writer and reader

more of these please

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This is a fun and really interesting series. I love museums and learning how things work and were developed so this series is perfect. Coupled with Bill Brysons soft tones and delightful accent it is a real pleasure to listen to.

Love it!

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enjoyed these forays into the back stories of items at the British Museum, as well as the incidental info ...who would have thought there was a connection between Marconi and the famous Whiskey family...
great brain fodder

enjoyable and informative

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Such an interesting series, I was so disappointed to discover there was only 5 episodes

I wish there were more!

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