Radio 4 - In Our Time - Chromatography

[Dave2002]

The In Our Time programme this morning is very interesting - though some may know most of it already.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z4w7p. Chromatography

There is a podcast if that helps.

This is one of the most interesting programmes I 've heard on radio for a long while. It also shows that some topics can be dealt with in a useful way on radio - TV isn't the only way to go.

[Serial_Apologist]

I started listening, but turned off the moment the Braggart came back on an answer with, "That wasn't the question I was asking". These aren't politicians you're talking to, you know, Melvyn - they deserve respect.

[agingjb]

Melvyn Bragg does seem to be increasingly tetchy recently. Pity, because the program is almost always worthwhile.

[David-G]

In Our Time is a marvellous programme. It is always worth listening to, and is greatly informative on whatever the subject is. And yet it has a lacuna at its heart - there is nothing on music. We have had "Mathematics and Music", and "Music of the Spheres", but of music itself I can find nothing. No programme on Bach, on Mozart, on Beethoven - all towering figures of Western culture. It is as if music were alien to our culture, instead of being an essential part of it. Is this not very strange?

[Serial_Apologist]

In Our Time is a marvellous programme. It is always worth listening to, and is greatly informative on whatever the subject is. And yet it has a lacuna at its heart - there is nothing on music. We have had "Mathematics and Music", and "Music of the Spheres", but of music itself I can find nothing. No programme on Bach, on Mozart, on Beethoven - all towering figures of Western culture. It is as if music were alien to our culture, instead of being an essential part of it. Is this not very strange?

Maybe music is a lacuna at the heart of Sir Melvyn's brain. I've heard it said...

[Jonathan]

I must try to hear this before it disappears! As an analytical chemist for much of the last 20 years, I have done a lot of chromatography and I will be interested to hear what is said.

[Roslynmuse]

I must try to hear this before it disappears! As an analytical chemist for much of the last 20 years, I have done a lot of chromatography and I will be interested to hear what is said.

In Our Time doesn't disappear - they're all available dating back to when the programme started!

[Jonathan]

That's good news! Thanks Roslynmuse.

[usher]

Melvyn Bragg does seem to be increasingly tetchy recently. Pity, because the program is almost always worthwhile.

Exactly how I feel about it. At his best he brings out the best in his panel, at his worst he is embarrassingly browbeating.

[ardcarp]

In Our Time is a marvellous programme. It is always worth listening to, and is greatly informative on whatever the subject is. And yet it has a lacuna at its heart - there is nothing on music. We have had "Mathematics and Music", and "Music of the Spheres", but of music itself I can find nothing. No programme on Bach, on Mozart, on Beethoven - all towering figures of Western culture. It is as if music were alien to our culture, instead of being an essential part of it. Is this not very strange?

I'm a big fan of IOT, and often dip into its archive. I brought up the non-appearance of Music topics on the Forum ages ago...and I wrote to the producers. It does seem very odd that such a major cultural influence is completely ignored. If it is not Melvyn's area of interest, that shouldn't matter. He knows little about science, yet makes that a strength when dealing with a mathematical or scientific subject; in other words, he asks the questions that the average person might ask. In fact I like the programme least when he does know a lot, e.g. in literature, philosophy and history. As you say, very strange.

[Quarky]

The In Our Time programme this morning is very interesting - though some may know most of it already.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z4w7p. Chromatography

There is a podcast if that helps.

This is one of the most interesting programmes I 've heard on radio for a long while. It also shows that some topics can be dealt with in a useful way on radio - TV isn't the only way to go.

Well yes, but at the risk of being a wet blanket, it's not clear to me why Chromatography was chosen. There are any number of ananlytical techniques, each of which is interesting if one perseveres with the subject (not a chemist, by the way).

Of more interest, and much more topical, might have been the UK's synchrotron facility:

http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

[Flay]

I listened. Sorry but I was disappointed by MB. He kep on interrupting, asking for explanations of the simplest things. Qute often he was unintelligible. And I didn't feel the experts were given opportunities to tell us much.

Why do they bring on a panel of experts then not allow them to speak technically? If they want simple explanations then bring on a physics teacher. Do they not know that quite a few of their listeners will have studied physics to O-Level/GCSE or A-Level?

[ardcarp]

This wasn't one of the best. Maybe Melvyn...who appreciates things of the mind....was irked by one guest doing some blotting-paper chromatography during the transmission. However, the basics of chromatography were explored. Whilst many listeners may have learned (and forgotten?) their O- and A-level chemistry, I for one did not feel 'talked down to'. My biggest reason for supporting IOT is that it is LIVE on air, not a manicured product. It remains miles ahead of the typical BBC TV treatment of any subject, viz talking slowly, walking and talking, driving from place to place*, achieving (just) a Blue Peter level of depth.

* I might add 'word-painting' (big booms and flashes of colour) and constant repetition of subject matter, and worst of all the opening gambit of "I'm Dr/Professor so-and-so and I'm going to discover....." Rubbish! It's all been dicovered before!