Babbage: on Babbage
On the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Babbage, we retrace the footsteps of the brilliant but irascible British inventor, mathematician, and...
The Economist: Babbage
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About
Named after Charles Babbage a 19th-century polymath and grandfather of computing, Babbage is a weekly podcast on science and technology. Host Kenneth Cukier talks to our correspondents about the innovations, discoveries and gadgetry making the news. Published every Wednesday on Economist Radio.
Babbage: Rocks in space
A probe to study the Trojan asteroids is expected to take off this week, but what will this mission uncover about the formation of the solar system? A...
Babbage: A new Anthropocene diet
A new generation of technologies are transforming the world’s food-production system. Food scientists are producing cruelty-free meat in the lab, grow...
Babbage: Don't panic
As British petrol stations run dry, we explore the behavioural science of panic buying. Also, a dried-up lake bed reveals evidence about America’s fir...
Babbage: From pandemic to twindemic
As the northern hemisphere heads towards its second winter battling covid-19, epidemiologist Professor Dame Anne Johnson explains the risk of a surge ...
Babbage: Booster shot
As the northern hemisphere heads towards its second pandemic winter, some countries have already started to make third doses of vaccine available to t...
Babbage: The building blocks of life
From the hive of molecular activity inside every cell to how cells self-organise into complex living things and those organisms evolve into different ...
Babbage: Back to school
As debates over vaccinating children rage and the Delta variant of covid-19 surges in many countries, what impact will the return to classrooms have o...
Babbage: Unstrung — the end of string theory?
The 20th Century was a golden age for physics but some of its ideas for explaining the material universe have been thrown into doubt. Could a theory k...
Babbage: Keeping it cool
Solar geoengineering has the potential to help counteract global warming, so why are scientists so cautious about it? Host Kenneth Cukier also explore...