The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1643: Athanasius Kircher
Engines of Our Ingenuity

The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1643: Athanasius Kircher

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 17, 20263 min
  • Science

Episode: 1643 In which Athanasius Kircher softens the 17th-C scientific revolution. Today, -- after Galileo.

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 2 of 12 · 0:07

This is the Engines of Our Ingenuity, made possible by the friends of KUHF Houston.

, , , .

Athanasius Kircher was born in Germany in 1622, just as Galileo, now 36 years old, was

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:07
  • B20:34
  • C11:17
  • B21:29
  • C11:51
  • C12:17
  • C12:50
  • C13:10

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 17%A2 50%B1 28%B2 6%C1 0%
  • 94% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 139 words a minute: a natural pace.
  • 32 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

This is the Engines of Our Ingenuity, made possible by the friends of KUHF Houston. Today, after Galileo, the University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. Athanasius Kircher was born in Germany in 1622, just as Galileo, now 36 years old, was hitting his stride. Kircher studied humanities, science, languages and math in several Jesuit

0:34

schools. He also became expert in the subject of physical curiosities, and that term needs explanation. After Columbus, the 16th century had become a great epoch of exploration. ships circled the globe and came back to tell of amazing plants, animals, geography. Picture books appeared with lush images of curious humans, beasts, plants and places, some real,

0:59

some imagined. Those physical curiosities became a metaphor for a new science of observation. When Kircher became a Jesuit priest in 1628, he was schooled in the new science. Five Five years later, just as the Italian Inquisition called Galileo to Rome, Pope Urban called Curture to Rome as a professor of math, physics, and oriental languages, the Inquisition soon

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (2 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy