Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

The Scientific Odyssey

The Scientific Odyssey is a podcast exploration of scientific inquiry through it's history and philosophy.  New episodes weekly.

May 30, 2017

This week we look at the spectral classification work of Antonia Maury and Annie Jump Cannon at the Harvard College Observatory.


May 21, 2017

In this week's episode we look at the early work of the Harvard College Observatory under the direction of Edward Charles Pickering.  We discuss his three big research initiatives: the visual photometric survey of stars, the All-Sky Survey and Catalogue and the Draper Memorial Catalogue that catalogued and classified...


May 14, 2017

When Kirchhoff and Bunsen unlocked elemental spectra, they opened a new avenue of astrophysical investigation.  This work work was originally done by the quartet of Lewis Rutherfurd, Astronomer Royal George Airy, Father Angelo Secchi and William Huggins.  This work would lead to advances by Hermann Carl Vogel and Norman...


May 7, 2017

In 1861, Gustav Kirchhoff published the astonishing results that he could, merely by examining the light received from the Sun, determine what elements it was made from.  One this episode, we'll trace the scientific investigation of the nature of light from Isaac Newton through Joseph Fraunhofer to the work of Kirchhoff...