BBC Radio 4 - A Brief History of Mathematics
A Brief History of Mathematics
Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science. Ten fifteen minute podcasts that reveal the personalities behind the calculations from Newton to the present day. How do these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world?
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Maths: 10 Nicolas Bourbaki
The mathematician that never was. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes the life and mathematics of an elusive hero. The collected works of Bourbaki represents one of the most ambitious enterprises in mathematical history: an attempt to unify shapes and numbers into single discipline.
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Maths: 09 Hardy and Ramanujan
A mathematical romance. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes how a passion for prime numbers united a Cambridge professor and an unknown Indian clerk.
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Maths: 08 Henri Poincare
An embarassing error and the mathematics of chaos. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes how a mistake in Poincare's working led him to an astonishing conclusion: some mathematical problems don't have a reliable solution.
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Maths: 07 Georg Cantor
Infinity. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes the troubled life of this radical mathematician who shocked his colleagues by proving there's more than one infinity. With contributions from Emeritus Professor of Mathematics Roger Penrose.
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Maths: 06 The Mathematicians who helped Einstein
Seeing in four dimensions. Professor Marcus du Sautoy on the pioneers who pushed mathematics into new dimensions and the strange new geometries they created. Emeritus Professor Roger Penrose confirms that even Einstein sometimes struggled with his maths.