Histfest - Horizons: A Global History of Science
Channel: British Library
Date: 2022-05-13

We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. But this is wrong. Science is not, and has never been, a uniquely European endeavour. 

In this radical retelling of the history of science, Dr James Poskett challenges the Eurocentric narrative in conversation with Mary-Ann Ochota.

Copernicus relied on mathematical techniques borrowed from Arabic and Persian texts. When Newton set out the laws of motion, he relied on astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa. And when Darwin was writing On the Origin of Species, he consulted a 16th-century Chinese encyclopedia.