history of science Archives

The Sky at Night – Ancestral Skies

Science / 11 minutes of reading / November 15, 2024 / By HDclump

The Sky at Night – Ancestral Skies: This month, “The Sky at Night” joins forces with BBC Ideas to explore an exciting crossroads of archaeology and astronomy, revealing the fascinating secrets of our ancestral skies. Humanity has always been drawn to the stars, from the sun guiding early explorers across the earth to today’s astronomers decoding the mysteries of the cosmos. But as our modern world expands, are we losing the essential link to these deep, ancient skies?

The Sky at Night – Ancestral Skies Read More »

Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing

Science / 3 minutes of reading / September 29, 2022 / By HDclump

Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing: Dr Hannah Fry tells the story of the remarkable life of Ada Lovelace – a 19th-century countess whose work helped give rise to the modern era of computing. Ada Lovelace was a most unlikely computer pioneer. In this film, Dr Hannah Fry tells the story of Ada’s remarkable life. Born in the early 19th century, Ada was a countess of the realm, a scandalous socialite and an ‘enchantress of numbers’. The film is an enthralling tale of how a life infused with brilliance, but blighted by illness and gambling addiction, helped give rise to

Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing Read More »

Seven Ages of Starlight

Science / 2 minutes of reading / May 5, 2022 / By HDclump

Seven Ages of Starlight: This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe. Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us. There are old, bloated red giants, capable of gobbling up planets in their orbit, explosive deaths – supernovae – that forge the building blocks of life and

Seven Ages of Starlight Read More »

The Story of Science episode 6 – Who Are We?

Science / 3 minutes of reading / January 8, 2021 / By HDclump

The Story of Science episode 6 – Who Are We? -We now know that the brain – the organ that more than any other makes us human – is one of the wonders of the universe, and yet until the 17th century it was barely studied. The twin sciences of brain anatomy and psychology have offered different visions of who we are. Now these sciences are coming together and in the process have revealed some surprising and uncomfortable truths about what really shapes our thoughts, feelings and desires. And the search to understand how our brains work has

The Story of Science episode 6 – Who Are We? Read More »

The Story of Science episode 5 – What Is the Secret of Life?

Science / 3 minutes of reading / January 7, 2021 / By HDclump

The Story of Science episode 5 – What Is the Secret of Life? – The story of how the secret of life has been examined through the prism of the most complex organism known – the human body. It begins with attempts to save the lives of gladiators in Ancient Rome, unfolds with the macabre work and near-perfect drawings of Leonardo in the Renaissance, through the idea of the ‘life force’ of electricity, to the microscopic world of the cell. It reveals how a moral crisis unleashed by work on the nuclear bomb helped trigger a great breakthrough

The Story of Science episode 5 – What Is the Secret of Life? Read More »

The Story of Science episode 4 – Can We Have Unlimited Power?

Science / 3 minutes of reading / January 6, 2021 / By HDclump

The Story of Science episode 4 – Can We Have Unlimited Power? – We are the most power-hungry generation that has ever lived. This film tells the story of how that power has been harnessed – from wind, steam and from inside the atom. In the early years the drive for new sources of power was led by practical men who wanted to make money. Their inventions and ideas created fortunes and changed the course of history, but it took centuries for science to catch up, to explain what power is, rather than simply what it does. This

The Story of Science episode 4 – Can We Have Unlimited Power? Read More »

The Story of Science episode 3 – How Did We Get Here?

Science / 3 minutes of reading / January 3, 2021 / By HDclump

The Story of Science episode 3 – How Did We Get Here?: The question of our human origins is one of the most controversial science has wrestled with. This is the story of how scientists came to explain the beauty and diversity of life on earth, and reveal how its evolution is connected to the long and violent history of our planet. Featuring ocean adventurers, eccentric French aristocrats, mountain climbers, a secret Victorian publisher with 12 fingers, a ridiculed German meteorologist, and only a brief hint of Charles Darwin. Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring

The Story of Science episode 3 – How Did We Get Here? Read More »

The Story of Science episode 2 – What is the World Made Of?

Science / 3 minutes of reading / January 2, 2021 / By HDclump

The Story of Science episode 2 – What is the World Made Of? – In this episode, Michael demonstrates how our society is built on our search to find the answer to what makes up everything in the material world. This is a story that moves from the secret labs of the alchemists and their search for gold to the creation of the world’s first synthetic dye – mauve – and onto the invention of the transistor. This quest may seem abstract and highly theoretical. Yet it has delivered the greatest impact on humanity. By trying to answer

The Story of Science episode 2 – What is the World Made Of? Read More »

The Story of Science episode 1 – What Is Out There?

Science / 4 minutes of reading / January 1, 2021 / By HDclump

The Story of Science episode 1 – What Is Out There?: Michael Mosley explores how history has shaped science. He looks at how we came to understand that our planet was not at the center of everything in the cosmos. Michael Mosley embarks on an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society’s historical path. He begins with the story of one of the great upheavals in human history, how we came to understand that our planet was not at the centre of everything in the cosmos but just one

The Story of Science episode 1 – What Is Out There? Read More »