science

The Island - Land episode 1

The Island – Land episode 1

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

The Island – Land episode 1: The story of the island of Ireland’s epic geological journey, spanning 1.8 billion years. In this first episode, we reveal how two ancient continents swallowed an ocean as they slowly approached each other over millions of years. The collision point would eventually become Ireland, and we show how the battle scar from this immense fusion runs like a suture in the rock from the Shannon Estuary in County Limerick to Clogherhead in County Louth.       This merging and folding of lands took millions of years, and, even after this ancient coming together, […]

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Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing

Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

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

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The Incredible Science of Temperature episode 2

The Incredible Science of Temperature episode 2

Science / 9 minutes of reading / / By

The Incredible Science of Temperature episode 2: Helen Czerski explores the narrow band of temperature that has led to life on Earth and shows how all living creatures depend on temperature for its survival. She reveals how life began in a dramatic place where hot meets cold, and how every single living creature on Earth depends on temperature for its survival. She uncovers the extraordinary natural engineering that animals have evolved to keep their bodies at the right temperature. And she witnesses the remarkable surgery that’s using temperature to push the human body to the very brink of life.  In

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The Incredible Science of Temperature episode 1

The Incredible Science of Temperature episode 1

Science / 6 minutes of reading / / By

The Incredible Science of Temperature episode 1 – Frozen Solid : Dr Helen Czerski discovers how cold has shaped our planet, and how pushing the limits of cold has unlocked new technologies, from superconductors to quantum computing.   Everything around us – from the tiniest insect on Earth to the most distant stars of the cosmos – exists somewhere on a vast scale from cold to hot. In this series, physicist Dr Helen Czerski explores the extraordinary science of temperature. She unlocks the extremes of the temperature scale, from absolute zero to searing heat of stars – and reveals how

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Origins of Us - Brains

Origins of Us – Brains

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Origins of Us – Brains: Dr Alice Roberts explores how our species, Homo sapiens, developed its large brain and asks why humans are the only ape of its kind left on the planet today. The evolution of the human mind is one of the greatest mysteries. It is the basis of religion, philosophy and science. We are special because of our extraordinary brains, and to understand why we think and act the way we do, we need to look at where and why our brains evolved.       The Rift Valley in Kenya is thought to be the crucible

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Origins of Us - Guts

Origins of Us – Guts

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Origins of Us – Guts: In this second episode, Dr Alice Roberts charts how our ancestors’ hunt for food has driven the way we look and behave today – from the shape of our face to the way we see, and even the way we attract the opposite sex.       Clues to our ancestors’ diet can be found in some surprising places. Alice goes in search of a lion kill to find out how the tapeworms in lions’ food reveal our ancestors were eating the same diet of big game 1.7 million years ago. She puts her teeth

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Bones

Origins of Us – Bones

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Origins of Us – Bones: In the first episode, Dr Alice Roberts looks at how our skeleton reveals our incredible evolutionary journey. Trekking through the forests of our ancient ancestors, she goes to meet the apes who still live there today – chimpanzees. In six million years we have become very different, and what kick-started this can be found in an extraordinary fossil – Sahelanthropus. A single hole where the spine was attached suggests that our ancestors started the journey to being human by standing upright. We take it for granted, but standing up and walking is surprisingly complex –

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The Sky at Night - Photographing the Universe

The Sky at Night – Photographing the Universe

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

The Sky at Night – Photographing the Universe: For centuries, humans have been drawing what they see in the night sky through telescopes. But there is something about a photograph that can make you feel you are right there, up close to the moon, planet, star or galaxy you are looking at. Having the light from those distance objects, fixed in an image, has meant scientists can analyse and understand the beautiful universe around us. So, this month, the Sky at Night is looking at the wonderful world of astrophotography.     Dr Jen Gupta visits Chris to talk about

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The Sky at Night - James Webb Road Trip

The Sky at Night – James Webb Road Trip

Science / 4 minutes of reading / / By

The Sky at Night – James Webb Road Trip: On 12 July 2022, the Sky at Night joined the rest of the world to watch as the James Webb Space Telescope released its long-awaited first images. And it didn’t disappoint. Stars and galaxies were revealed in such detail that they blew even the most experienced astronomers away. However, as spectacular as these images were, it was the data that they represented that really excited the scientists watching.     Chris Lintott travels around the country, meeting some of the scientists getting their hands on the very first batches of data

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Chasing the Moon episode 3

Chasing the Moon episode 3

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Chasing the Moon episode 3: After the immediate celebration of 1968’s successful Apollo 8 mission, underlying questions about the space programme emerged with new intensity as politicised young Americans challenged the nation’s priorities. Nasa pushed brashly forward.       After the lunar orbit, competition escalated among the training astronauts. Who would be chosen for the first moon landing? In January 1969, Nasa ended months of speculation and announced the crew for Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong would be in the craft that landed on the moon. They would be supported by Mike Collins in the command module.

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Chasing the Moon episode 2

Chasing the Moon episode 2

Science / 2 minutes of reading / / By

Chasing the Moon episode 2: What exactly was it going to take for America to beat the Soviets to the moon? Cold War tensions persisted, as rumours circulated that the Soviets were preparing to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon. Nasa quickly developed the Gemini program, sending astronauts into orbit around the Earth to practice critical manoeuvres for the eventual trip to the moon. Ed White became the first American to walk in space, an experience so exhilarating that, when Houston ordered him back in the space craft, he replied, ‘Not yet!’.       Nasa’s next-generation spacecraft, Apollo

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