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Episode details

Radio 3,16 Jan 2013,15 mins

SeriesFive Portraits of Science

Isaac Newton

The Essay

Available for over a year

The Essay considers how five real-life scientists have been portrayed in culture, examining along the way ideas of genius, inspiration and authority. Tonight, historian of science Patricia Fara explores how Isaac Newton helped to define our modern sense of what a genius is - and a quintessentially English one, at that.

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