Instead of a detailed translation of the programme (which is conducted in Norwegian), what follows is a summary describing the content.
The report starts after eight minutes within the programme. It is recorded on location at the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a report for EKKO, a daily programme about science an society sent on NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) channel 2.
In the report, I and colleague Torkild Jemterud talk about the Gottorp Globe, an immense mechanical globe built in Germany in 1703 and brought to Russia in 1713-14 on czar Peter I's request. Weighing 3,5 tonnes and measuring three metres in diameter, transporting the globe across Eastern Europe was a meticulous process, in which several workers paid with their lives. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, the globe was installed in the tower of the Kunstkamera, a characteristic building which can rightfully be described as the cradle of Russian science. We talk about how Peter I - the Great - was obsessed with science and modernisation, and how the globe must have been perceived as a technological wonder of its time. An English-language guide, Evgeina Butenko, at times explains details about the globe, which on the outside is decorated with a large world map (updated every time new land was explored) and on the inside an accurate map of the stars. There is room for twelve people within the globe, where they could sit down and enjoy the artwork while the globe was rotating on the mechanical axis. We discuss the impact Peter's modernisation of science and challenging religious dogmas had on the state and society of his time, and how Kunstkamera became a symbol for the czar's ambitions to let Western-inspired science rock the traditions of orthodox, autochratic Russia.
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