Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science: Leonhard Euler and an 18th-century puzzle.

This ten-part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science. Today, how the mathematics that Leonard Euler invented two hundred years ago has transformed the internet. Euler's solution to an 18th-century conundrum paved the way for the search engines most of us use every day.

Producer: Anna Buckley

From 2010.