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Writer Professor Steve Jones explains how Paris at the time of the Revolution was the world capital of science and how many of its leading practitioners ended up on the guillotine.

Jones takes a sideways look at the city at the time of the revolution. Paris saw the first flight, the first estimate of the speed of light, the first lightning conductor and the invention of the tin can and the stethoscope. Antoine Lavoisier founded modern chemistry and physiology but ended up on the guillotine for his political activities, with the judge remarking that ‘the Revolution has no need for geniuses’. Jones explains how wrong this was.

Jones is a senior research fellow at University College London. He gave the Reith lectures in 1991 and presented a BBC series on genetics and evolution in 1996. He frequently appears on radio and television.