Astrotalkuk » Podcast Feed

Scroll to the bottom of this post to play the audio. On November 3rd this year, Professor Jim Al-khalili was to give three lectures in Liverpool on the same day (Quantum Physics, Advances in Mathematics in Medieval Islam and On the Shoulders of Eastern Giants: the Forgotten Contribution of the Medieval Physicists). I did feel a bit of a stalker, I attended all three, but fortunately I was not alone. It is not often that I get to personally witness the scientific method in real life. The most illuminating part of the day of the three lectures was the the Q and A following the second lecture. A questioner put her hand up and stated clearly that she had a correction rather than a question. She had heard the professor talk about the concept and symbol for the number zero. During his lecture, the professor had recalled the contribution from the Babylonians, Mayans and Indian mathematicians. The questioner had been researching the substantial contribution from the Egyptians in this area which the professor had no