Video documentaries about science and technology
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 5 - Rare Earth
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 5 - Rare Earth: Life on Earth prospers because it enjoys the right amount of heat from the sun, and the atmosphere prevents meteorite bombardment. Geography series with Dr Iain Stewart. Our planet is unique within the solar system. Four-and-a-half billion years ago it had a twin named Theia which was absorbed into the Earth, increasing its gravity and allowing it to form an atmosphere. Iain travels to Meteor Crater in…
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 4 - Oceans
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 4 - Oceans: Iain travels to surfers' paradise Hawaii to learn more about oceans, explaining the difference between waves, tides and currents. In the Amazon, he rides the world's longest tidal bore. In the beginning, there were no oceans: they are thought to have gradually formed from volcano steam and melted comet ice. Change continues today: a new sea is forming in Ethiopia, which will separate East Africa from the mainland,…
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 3 - Ice
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 3 - Ice : Documentary series in which Dr Iain Stewart reveals the natural forces that have shaped the earth's development. Ice isn't just something to put in a gin and tonic - it has carved out landscapes, unleashed catastrophes and shaped human evolution. Now it could cause the destruction of our civilisation. Iain visits the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland which has retreated 10km in the last few years because of…
Universe - The Big Bang: Before the Dawn episode 5
Universe - The Big Bang: Before the Dawn episode 5: It’s the ultimate question: why are we here? Cutting-edge space missions take us back 13.8 billion years to the very beginning – the origin of the Universe. Professor Brian Cox asks the ultimate question: how did the Universe come to be? The Universe is daunting in its scale. We live on one planet of eight that orbit just one of the four hundred billion stars in our galaxy.…
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 2 - Atmosphere
Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 2 - Atmosphere: Dr Iain Stewart reveals the crucial natural forces that have shaped the earth's development. A flight in a jet plane, a trip to the Andes and a trip to Shark Bay in Australia are expensive but necessary to discuss atmosphere. You can't see it, you can't taste it, you can't smell it and you can't touch it, yet without it almost all life on Earth would die instantly.…