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  • Sawai Jai Singh II - The Royal who was an Astronomy Geek

    Sawai Jai Singh II - The Royal who was an Astronomy Geek
    2025/08/25
    ‘Sawai’ Jai Singh II (1688-1743) is largely remembered today for establishing the foundations of Jaipur. His life-story is mostly told through a political lens - as is that of most rulers in medieval India - via conquests and loyalty (or disloyalty!) to the extant Mughal empire. However Jai Singh was a scholar of considerable talent and devoted considerable time, energy and resources to astronomy. He developed and improved astronomical tables that tracked planetary motion as well as important stars. He is best known for building a series of observatories or ‘Jantars’-- called ‘Jantar Mantar’-- in Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura among others. Though they are in disuse, they are still testimony to the fact that some Indian medieval rulers contributed to advancing science and led quests to unearth new knowledge about nature. There is also the abiding mystery of how a man as scholarly as Jai Singh completely missed the news in 16th and 17th century of the emerging Scientific Revolution The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston For more episodes of The Rearview:
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    47 分
  • Unravelling Malaria's Deadly Secret

    Unravelling Malaria's Deadly Secret
    2025/08/11
    Ross an army surgeon was born in Almora on May 13 1857, three days before the Great Indian Rebellion. On August 20, 1897, discovered the Malarial parasite in gastro-intestinal tract of a female Anopheles mosquitoes and eventually established the transmission cycle, while serving as army surgeon in India. This groundbreaking discovery laid the foundation for the methods to combat the disease that killed millions and continues to affect many. He won the Nobel prize in 1902 for it. He was the first British and the first Indian born person to win the Nobel. Tune in to hear his story. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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    48 分
  • Measuring India | Part 2: George Everest and Measuring the World’s Highest Peak

    Measuring India | Part 2: George Everest and Measuring the World’s Highest Peak
    2025/07/28
    With William Lambton having completed the Great Trigonometric Survey upto Central India, it fell to his successor, George Everest, to take up the mantle. Unlike his predecessor, who commanded a fierce loyalty among his subordinates, George Everest could be tempestuous and irritable, but he brought his own pioneering innovations to the question that inspired the Survey: How does one accurately map the shape of the Earth. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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    46 分
  • Measuring India | Part 1: William Lambton and the Trigonometrical Survey

    Measuring India | Part 1: William Lambton and the Trigonometrical Survey
    2025/07/14
    Mount Everest has been an enigma for centuries. While an object of worship historically, it presented itself as a tantalising puzzle to the measurement-obsessed surveyors of the East India Company. However this puzzle presented itself in the way it did, only because of an ambitious enterprise that sought to answer a much more fundamental question: What is the exact shape of the earth? In the first of a two-episode deep dive, we look into the exploits of William Lambton, who pioneered India's first 'Big Data' exercise called Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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    40 分
  • Jayant Narlikar Vs Big Bang

    Jayant Narlikar Vs Big Bang
    2025/06/02
    ‘Our whole universe was in a hot dense state and then 14 billion years ago expansion started it .’ This episode is about a scientist and one of the giants of cosmology who would have disagreed with the BareNakedLadies theme song to the Big Bang Theory. Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, who passed earlier this month, was, as a scientist, best known for advancing alternate interpretations to the mainstream consensus that the Universe began as Big Bang. But there is much more to him - institution builder, science writer, astrology-debunker and passionate advocate of everyone honing a scientific temper. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston Listen to more Rearview podcast episodes:
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    53 分
  • India’s First Generation of Women Scientists

    India’s First Generation of Women Scientists
    2025/05/19
    This week, we explore the lives of three Indian scientists, Kamala Sohoni, Anna Mani, and Janaki Ammal, who were the first women to get doctorates in science in India, making them the first women scientists in India. Spanning meteorology, botany, and nutritional sciences, they had long careers in prominent scientific departments – even heading some of them – at a time when these were overwhelmingly male bastions. Drawing on their published works, we explore their experiences as women scientists, their views on sexism, and whether they worked to improve working conditions for other women scientists. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Recorded, edited, and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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    49 分
  • The Great Himalayan ‘Golmaal’

    The Great Himalayan ‘Golmaal’
    2025/05/05
    Science isn’t always the noble pursuit of truth. Ambition and greed can sometimes corrupt even promising scientists. This episode delves into one of the all-time great hoaxes perpetrated by Indian palaeontologist and geologist, Vishwajit Gupta, of Panjab University. Over decades, he passed off fossils from different parts of the world as ‘Himalayan fossils’ and was widely commended by an unsuspecting scientific community, until Australian geologist John Talent ripped apart his facade. Gupta’s fraud was similar to what is considered the greatest hoax in science ever, namely, Piltdown Man. How did Gupta carry out his crimes, and how did Talent expose him? Listen in Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Audio edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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    35 分
  • The Tragedy of Dr Subhash Mukherjee

    The Tragedy of Dr Subhash Mukherjee
    2025/04/21
    In this episode we dive into the life of Dr Subhash Mukherjee, an obstetrician and gynaecologist from erstwhile Calcutta, who should have been one of India’s most famous and decorated doctors but whose life too a very tragic turn. Dr Mukherjee pioneered techniques in what was then, the fledgling science of In Vitro Fertilisation but his work was ridiculed and denigrated by the establishment, so much so, that it influenced his unfortunate decision to end his life. Why didn’t Mukherjee get the credit he deserved? How did the world eventually learn of his genius. Listen to the Rearview to find out. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
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    40 分