Science Archives - Page 13 of 25

The Sky at Night – Exoplanets and Antarctica

Science / 4 minutes of reading / April 14, 2022 / By HDclump

The Sky at Night – Exoplanets and Antarctica: In a month when the tally of confirmed exoplanets passed 5,000, it’s astonishing to remember that just 30 years ago, the notion of planets outside our own solar system was, well – just a notion. Since the first extrasolar planet was discovered in 1992, a staggering array of other worlds have been identified, including many in solar systems quite unlike our own. Professor Amaury Triaud (University of Birmingham) studies binary systems – two stars locked in mutual orbit – and the planets that have been found orbiting them. Recently, Professor […]

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How to Sleep Well with Michael Mosley – Horizon

Science / 3 minutes of reading / April 11, 2022 / By HDclump

How to Sleep Well with Michael Mosley: A third of the population regularly struggle with our sleep, which rose to one in two during the pandemic – the highest it’s ever been. However, as more and more people seek help, an explosion in sleep science is enabling the study of sleep in ways not possible before. What’s more, recent breakthroughs are uncovering what’s happening in our brains and bodies while we’re asleep, getting us closer than ever to understanding the importance of sleep for our health. Michael Mosley has struggled with his sleep for years and wants to

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The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

Science / 2 minutes of reading / February 13, 2022 / By HDclump

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: Professor Richard Feynman of Caltech talks about his life and career. In 1981, he gave Horizon a candid interview, talking about many things close to his heart. Richard Feynman was one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers of the 20th century. He rebuilt the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and it was for this work that he won the Nobel Prize in 1965. This programme is part a collection of BBC programmes specially chosen to celebrate Horizon’s 50th anniversary. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Richard Feynman

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Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 5 – Rare Earth

Science / 4 minutes of reading / December 8, 2021 / By HDclump

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 Arizona to explore the atmosphere’s role in protecting us from bombardment by meteorites. Life on earth only prospers because it

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Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 4 – Oceans

Science / 2 minutes of reading / November 26, 2021 / By HDclump

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, and the Mediterranean is drying up. Documentary series in which Dr Iain Stewart reveals the natural forces that have shaped

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Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 3 – Ice

Science / 3 minutes of reading / November 18, 2021 / By HDclump

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 global warming. Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 3 – Ice Ice is water frozen into a

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Universe – The Big Bang: Before the Dawn episode 5

Science / 4 minutes of reading / November 7, 2021 / By HDclump

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. But our galaxy is just one of trillions in the universe. Yet it is amongst those galaxies that we have

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Earth: The Power of the Planet episode 2 – Atmosphere

Science / 3 minutes of reading / November 4, 2021 / By HDclump

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. The atmosphere is Earth’s protective layer, warding off damaging cosmic rays and providing the life-giving oxygen which people depend on

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Universe – Black Holes: Heart of Darkness episode 4

Science / 4 minutes of reading / November 4, 2021 / By HDclump

Universe – Black Holes: Heart of Darkness episode 4: Prof Brian Cox journeys into a supermassive black hole – a monster that can destroy worlds, stop time, and is forcing us to reassess our understanding of reality. Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the universe with a journey into darkness. The centre of our galaxy is home to an invisible monster of unimaginable power – a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*. Weighing 4 million times the mass of the Sun, it’s an object with such an immense gravitational field that nothing can escape – not

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Universe – The Milky Way: Island of Light episode 3

Science / 4 minutes of reading / November 2, 2021 / By HDclump

Universe – The Milky Way: Island of Light episode 3: Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the cosmos by exploring the faint band of light that sweeps across the night sky – our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Sun is just one of almost 400 billion stars that form this vast, majestic disk of light, our own home in the universe. We’ve longed to understand our galaxy’s secrets since the time of the ancient Greeks, yet it’s only very recently, thanks to a cutting edge space telescope, that we’re finally able to reveal the Milky Way’s dramatic

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Universe – Alien Worlds: The Search for Second Earth episode 2

Science / 5 minutes of reading / November 1, 2021 / By HDclump

Universe – Alien Worlds: The Search for Second Earth episode 2: Humans have long gazed up at the night sky, wondering whether other lifeforms and intelligences could be thriving on worlds far beyond our own. Answering that question seemed fated to remain pure speculation. But over the last few decades, ultra-sensitive telescopes and dogged detective work have transformed alien planet-hunting from science fiction into hard fact. Gone are the days of speculation; the hunt for extraterrestrials has become a matter of serious scientific inquiry. As the hunt for alien worlds began, we expected to find worlds similar to

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Universe – The Sun: God Star episode 1

Science / 5 minutes of reading / October 28, 2021 / By HDclump

Universe – The Sun: God Star episode 1: Professor Brian Cox begins his epic exploration of the cosmos with a hymn to the great luminous bodies that bring light and warmth to the universe: the stars. It is estimated that there are two hundred trillion stars in the universe, each playing their part in an epic story of creation – a great saga that stretches from the dawn of time, with the arrival of the first star, through diverse generations until the arrival of our own star, the sun, and a civilisation that has grown up in its

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