Science Britannica

Episode 1

Frankenstein's Monsters

58 mins

Professor Brian Cox asks why, when science has done so much for humanity, it sometimes gets such a bad press. Brian reveals that the gothic novel Frankenstein drew on Italian scientist Giovanni Aldini's public attempts to raise the dead using electricity in the1800s. It's this powerful image of scientists 'playing God' that has dogged discovery ever since. Brian explains how the discovery of DNA, like nuclear fission before it, has resulted in controversy, with tales of 'Frankenfoods' fuelling the public's mistrust of science. Meeting Professor Tipi Aziz, whose pioneering work has helped thousands of Parkinson's disease sufferers, Brian reveals that - because the treatment was developed through experimentation on monkeys - it is wholly unacceptable to some. Scientific progress sometimes comes at a cost that scientists and the society they serve struggle with. However, although Aldini's work appalled his 19th-century audience, we are well served by the electronic defibrillators that routinely save lives today.