Every line on the U.S. map tells a story. Every border reflects their history – their struggles for independence, their internal conflicts over states rights and slavery, their westward expansion, and the mastery of their natural resources. They are so familiar with the map of United States, but do they know why their states look the way they do? Every shape on the map tells a great story about th
What a story it is, straight out of a Commando comic book." the guardian Jeremy Clarkson tells the story of one of the most daring operations of World War II, the Commando raid on the German occupied dry dock at St. Nazaire in France on 28th March 1942. It was an operation so successful and so heroic that it resulted in the award of five Victoria Crosses and 80 other decorations for gallantry.
There is a battle playing out inside your body right now. It started billions of years ago and it is still being fought in every one of us every minute of every day. It is the story of a viral infection - the battle for the cell.This film reveals the exquisite machinery of the human cell system from within the inner world of the cell itself - from the frenetic membrane surface that acts as a s
Dr Alice Roberts asks one of the great questions about our species: are we still evolving?There’s no doubt that we’re a product of millions of years of evolution.But thanks to modern technology and medicine, did we escape Darwin’s law of the survival of the fittest?Alice follows a trail of clues from ancient human bones, to studies of remarkable people living in the most inhospitable p
Get ready to re-think your ideas of reality. Join UCSD physicist Kim Griest as he takes you on a fascinating excursion, addressing some of the massive efforts and tantalizing bits of evidence which suggest that what goes on in empty space determines the properties of the three-dimensional existence we know and love, and discusses how that reality may be but the wiggling of strings from other dimen
Broadcast 5 January 1995, the first episode looks at how plants are able to move. The bramble is an aggressive example: it advances forcefully from side to side and, once settled on its course, there is little that can stand in its way. An altogether faster species is the birdcage plant, which inhabits Californian sand dunes. When its location becomes exposed, it shifts at great speed to another o
For thousands of years the holy lands of the Middle East have run with blood. Here the scars of battle fought between three of the great religions of the world are etched into the earth.But the deepest wound was made by a war between Christians and Muslims, that began in the 11th century and fought for 200 years. At stake: A tiny strip of land just a few hundred miles long, but with the greate
John F. Kennedy is remembered in part for his youth and good looks, but did you know that during the 1960 presidential campaign JFK was seriously ill and needed testosterone treatments?
The Mandelbrot set – someone has called it the thumb-print of God – is one of the most beautiful and remarkable discoveries in the entire history of mathematics.With Arthur C. Clarke as narrator and interviews with a number of notable mathematicians, including Benoît Mandelbrot, this program graphically illustrates how simple formulas can lead to complicated results: it explains the set, what