iPlayer Radio What's New?
Speaker icon LISTEN
Show more Show less
ON NOW : Weather
21/05/2013

Weather The latest weather forecast.

ON NEXT : 13:00 World at One
Image for Conductors and Semiconductors

Listen now 45 mins

Listen in pop-out player

Conductors and Semiconductors

Duration:
45 minutes
First broadcast:
Thursday 23 February 2012

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the physics of electrical conduction. Although electricity has been known for several hundred years, it was only in the early twentieth century that physicists first satisfactorily explained the phenomenon. Electric current is the passage of charged particles through a medium - but a material will only conduct electricity if its atomic structure enables it to do so.

In investigating electrical conduction scientists discovered two new classes of material. Semiconductors, first exploited commercially in the 1950s, have given us the transistor, the solar cell and the silicon chip, and have revolutionised telecommunications. And superconductors, remarkable materials first observed in 1911, are used in medical imaging and at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

With:

Frank Close
Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford

Jenny Nelson
Professor of Physics at Imperial College London

Lesley Cohen
Professor of Solid State Physics at Imperial College London

Producer: Thomas Morris.

  • FURTHER READING

    Frank Close, ‘The Infinity Puzzle’ (Oxford University Press, 2011)

    Per Fridtjof Dahl, ‘Superconductivity: Its Historical Roots and Development from Mercury to the Ceramic Oxides’ (American Institute of Physics, 1992)

    J. C. Gallop, ‘SQUIDs, the Josephson Effects and Superconducting Electronics’ (The Adam Hilger Series on Measurement Science and Technology, 1990)

    A. C. Rose-Innes and E. H. Rhoderick, ‘Introduction to Superconductivity’ (International Series in Solid State Physics Volume 6, Pergamon Press, 1988)

    J. R. Waldram, ‘Superconductivity of Metals and Cuprates’ (Institute of Physics, 1996)

    Charles Kittel, ‘Introduction to Solid State Physics’ (8th edition, Wiley, 2004)

Broadcasts

In Our Time Downloads

melvyn-bragg.jpg

Every episode of In Our Time - available to download to listen to when & where you want.

Free downloads

  1. Image for In Our Time Archive: Culture

    In Our Time Archive: Culture

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas as it applies to culture - from literature...

  2. Image for In Our Time Archive: History

    In Our Time Archive: History

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the people, conflicts and events that have shaped the world.

  3. Image for In Our Time Archive: Philosophy

    In Our Time Archive: Philosophy

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of philosophy - from ancient Greek thinkers to the...

  4. Image for In Our Time Archive: Religion

    In Our Time Archive: Religion

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of religious ideas - from the faith systems of...

  5. Image for In Our Time Archive: Science

    In Our Time Archive: Science

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas and the evolution of the sciences - from...

  6. Image for In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg

    In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas - including topics drawn from philosophy,...

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.