Science

Video documentaries about science and technology

Gravity

What on Earth is Wrong With Gravity?

What on Earth is Wrong With Gravity? – particle physicist Dr Brian Cox believes that the answer to the meaning of the universe lies in gravity. Both Einstein and Newton believed that gravity was powered by God. On a road trip across the USA, Brian fires lasers at the moon in Texas and goes wild in the desert in Arizona.     He encounters the bending of space and time at a maximum security military base and tries to detect ripples in our reality in the swamps of Louisiana.   What on Earth is Wrong With Gravity?   Gravity (from […]

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Stars

Stars

For as long as humans have walked the Earth, the stars have fascinated us. But we have come a long way since the earliest days of astronomy when we had nothing but our eyes to observe the night sky. Since then we have designed an arsenal of ingenious machines to help us unlock the secrets of the stars – from how they work and move around the Universe to how they live and die.     For more than 60 years, the Sky at Night has covered every major development in our understanding of the stars, and regular Sky at

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The-Placebo-Experiment

The Placebo Experiment: Can My Brain Cure My Body?

Could the power of fake pills- placebo- be used to treat some of our most common medical complaints? To find out, Dr Michael Mosley embarks on Britain’s largest ever trial to investigate the placebo effect. He is heading to Blackpool to gather 117 people suffering from backache – one of the leading types of chronic pain – before trying to treat them with nothing but fake pills and the power of the mind.     Working with experts from the University of Oxford, Michael discovers that the placebo effect is more than just a medical curiosity. The brain is actually

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Human Planet

How Earth Made Us – Human Planet episode 5

How Earth Made Us – Human Planet episode 5: Professor Iain Stewart explores the most recently established force – humans. It’s easy to think of the human impact on the planet as a negative one, but as Iain discovers, this isn’t always the case. It is clear that humans have unprecedented control over many of the planet’s geological cycles. The question is, how will the human race use this power?     Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how the planet has shaped our history. With spectacular images, surprising stories and a compelling narrative, the series discovers the central

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How Earth Made Us - Fire

How Earth Made Us – Fire episode 4

How Earth Made Us – Fire: Professor Iain Stewart continues his epic exploration of how the planet has shaped human history. Iain Stewart explores man’s relationship with fire. He begins by embarking on an extraordinary encounter with this terrifying force of nature – a walk right through the heart of a raging fire.     Fire has long been our main source of energy, and Iain shows how this meant that the planet played a crucial role in Britain’s industrial revolution, whilst holding China’s development back. Along the way he dives in a mysterious lake in Oregon, climbs a glacier

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How Earth Made Us - Wind

How Earth Made Us – Wind episode 3

How Earth Made Us – Wind: Professor Iain Stewart continues his epic exploration of how the planet has shaped human history. Iain sets sail on one of the fastest racing boats ever built to explore the story of our turbulent relationship with the wind. Travelling to iconic locations including the Sahara desert, the coast of west Africa and the South Pacific, Iain discovers how people have exploited the power of the wind for thousands of years.     The wind is a force which at first sight appears chaotic. But the patterns that lie within the atmosphere have shaped the

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How Earth Made Us - Water

How Earth Made Us – Water episode 2

How Earth Made Us – Water episode 2: Professor Iain Stewart continues his epic exploration of how the planet has shaped human history. This time he explores our complex relationship with water. Visiting spectacular locations in Iceland, the Middle East and India, Iain shows how control over water has been central to human existence.     He takes a precarious flight in a motorised para-glider to experience the cycle of freshwater that we depend on, discovers how villagers in the foothills of the Himalayas have built a living bridge to cope with the monsoon, and visits Egypt to reveal the

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How Earth Made Us episode 1

How Earth Made Us – Deep Earth episode 1

How Earth Made Us – Deep Earth episode 1 : Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how the planet has shaped our history. With spectacular images, surprising stories and a compelling narrative, the series discovers the central role played in human history by four different planetary forces.     In this first episode, Iain explores the relationship between the deep Earth and the development of human civilisation. He visits an extraordinary crystal cave in Mexico, drops down a hole in the Iranian desert and crawls through 7,000-year-old tunnels in Israel.   How Earth Made Us – Deep Earth episode

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Rise of the Rockets

Rise of the Rockets

Rise of the Rockets: new technologies are making rockets cheaper and more powerful than ever before. As companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic make space more accessible, and NASA returns to crewed spaceflight, a new era of space exploration may be on the horizon.     Rise of the Rockets   SpaceX SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in 2010. The company made history again in 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft

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Sky at Night - Is Cosmology in Crisis

The Sky at Night – Is Cosmology in Crisis ? episode 2 2019

The Sky at Night – Is Cosmology in Crisis ? episode 2 2019: ever since we discovered that distant galaxies are racing away from us, there has been a heated debate over just how fast the Universe is expanding. At the beginning of the 21st century, we thought we knew the answer. But now, two very different viewpoints have emerged. And they are dividing the scientific community.     The Sky at Night meets leading astronomers and cosmologists on both sides of the debate. Which team has the right answer? Or could both teams be right? If so, we may

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Wonders of Life episode 5

Wonders of Life episode 5 – Home

Wonders of Life episode 5: as far as we know, there is only one place in the universe on which life has taken hold – earth – but for how much longer will this distinction remain? Astronomers are on the brink of finding other worlds the same size as earth and the same distance from their star. Professor Brian Cox considers what it is about our world that has made it a home and asks what ingredients are necessary to turn a tiny spec of rock in space into a living, vibrant planet.     To find out, Brian has

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Wonders of Life episode 4

Wonders of Life episode 4 – Size Matters

Wonders of Life episode 4: in this episode, Brian travels around Australia to explore the physics of the size of life. Beginning with the largest organisms on our planet, a forest of giant eucalyptus trees, he then takes to the seas to get up-close with an ocean giant – the great white shark. From the safety of a steel cage Brian explains how the distinctive streamlined contours of the great white have been shaped by the physics of water.     Back on land, Brian heads out to the dry dusty outback. Here he tracks the largest living marsupial, the

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