麻豆社

Science writer and broadcaster Philip Ball sets out on a quest to explore the peculiar world of the invisible, a mysterious realm where magic and science meet.

In this first episode, Philip finds himself face to face with the death mask of Sir Isaac Newton. At the Royal Society in London he meets librarian Keith Moore who reveals that Newton鈥檚 work on invisible forces such as gravity was influenced by his secret fascination with the occult.

The notion that the world was governed by invisible universal forces was a central feature of natural magic. Newton was scorned by critics such as Gottfried Leibniz, who labelled him an occultist, yet he was able to mathematise his invisible forces and prove them to be very real. So the idea of an invisible force acting across empty space didn鈥檛 get consigned to the realm of superstitious magic - instead, it became a central feature of physics.

Presenter: Philip Ball
Producer: Max O鈥橞rien
A Juniper production for 麻豆社 Radio 4