Unstoppable: Inge Lehmann

Loading player...
From growing up in a progressive Denmark to studying mathematics at a gender-segregated Cambridge University, Inge Lehmann had to power through the shock of cultural change to pursue her love of mathematics. Whilst managing several seismological stations, Inge notices the peculiar readings in the data she was collecting. Was the Earth’s composition actually different to what the experts had thought?

Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber tell the story of Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann who used earthquakes to uncover the truth about the composition of the Earth’s inner core.

Presenters: Ella Hubber and Julia Ravey
Guest Speakers: Dr Lif Lund Jacobsen and Dr Trine Dahl-Jensen
Producers: Ella Hubber and Julia Ravey
Assistant producers: Sophie Ormiston, Anna Charalambou and Josie Hardy
Sound designer: Ella Roberts
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Editor: Holly Squire

(Photo: Inge Lehmann Credit: Neuhaus, Even (6.2.1863-20.4.1946) /Royal Danish Library)
12 May 2025 English United Kingdom Science

Other recent episodes

The Life Scientific: Washington Yotto Ochieng

As a child growing up on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya, Washington Yotto Ochieng once watched a plane cross the night sky and told his mother he wished he could travel on it. But he remembers her encouraging him to dream bigger... Today, Washington is a Professor…
18 May 26 min

The Life Scientific: Lucy Carpenter

Working on a remote tropical island in the Atlantic might sound like some sort of romantic idyll - but trying to conduct scientific research on a windy, isolated volanic outcrop is no picnic, as Lucy Carpenter can attest! Lucy is an atmopsheric chemist and a Professor at the University of…
11 May 26 min

The Life Scientific: Jens Juul Holst

As recently as a few years ago, the idea of a self-administered injection that would deliver proven weight-loss results might have sounded fantastical. Today, these medications are a reality and a global phenomenon; hailed in many quarters as “miracle drugs" for their success in treating obesity and diabetes. They do…
4 May 26 min

The Life Scientific: Jim Ashworth-Beaumont

It's a rare thing to encounter a medical specialist who has experience of his field from the expert and the patient perspective - but not unheard of... Jim Ashworth-Beaumont is an orthotist and prosthetist who spent years helping people adapt to life with artificial limbs and musculoskeletal supports, before a…
27 Apr 26 min

Inside Universe 25

“I shall largely speak of mice,” the paper begins “but my thoughts are on man.” So begins a truly extraordinary scientific paper, and an equally extraordinary story. “Death Squared: The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population.” was published in 1973 by John Calhoun, and it detailed his increasingly…
20 Apr 26 min