A rain forest is the richest habitat on Earth. Exactly how many species rain forests contain is unknown, but it runs into millions. And new ones are discovered every week. There are some, like the clouded leopard, we still know virtually nothing about. Although they cover just seven percent of the world's land area, jungles play a vital role in the health of the planet . Jungles and rainforests are home to an incredible variety of species like preening birds, intelligent orangutans and remarkably ambitious ants.
Head beyond the Asteroid Belt for an out of this world experience. Welcome to Jupiter, home of high adrenaline adventure. Plunge into its mysterious depths. When you drop through the clouds it would get darker and hotter. At the center the temperatures are hotter than the surface of the sun and the pressures are unimaginably high.
This documentary journeys with the scientists into the heart of a giant. Juno is the Nasa mission designed to peer through Jupiter's swirling clouds and reveal the wonders within. By projecting a 70-foot-wide, life-size Juno on a Houston rooftop, Scott Bolton, head of Juno, shows us how its fragile electronics are encased in 200kg of titanium. As Scott puts it, 'we had to build an armoured tank to go there.' Professor Andrew Ingersoll, Juno's space weatherman, reveals they have seen lightning inside Jupiter, perhaps a thousand times more powerful than Earth's lightning. This might be evidence for huge quantities of water inside Jupiter. Under the extreme conditions of Jupiter thousands of miles under the surface, hydrogen becomes a liquid metal. Juno is finding out how much liquid metallic hydrogen is inside Jupiter, and scientists hope to better understand how this flowing metal produces the most powerful aurora in the Solar System. But what is at Jupiter's heart? In Nice, Prof Tristan Guillot explains how Juno uses gravity to map the planet's centre. This can take scientists back to the earliest days of the solar system, because Jupiter is the oldest planet and it should contain clues to its own creation. By chalking out an outline of the Jupiter, Tristan reveals there is a huge rocky core - perhaps ten times the mass of Earth.
In Africa's ancient south west corner, two extraordinary deserts sit side by side. Water is in short supply, yet these deserts are somehow full of life because the creatures that live here have turned the rules of survival on their head. This film celebrates nature's ingenuity, no matter how tough it gets. In the Kalahari scrublands, clever meerkats are outsmarted by a wily bird, solitary and belligerent black rhinos get together to party and giant insects stalk huge flocks of birds. Rain almost never falls in the Namib - instead it must make do with vaporous, vanishing fog. The creatures in this, the world's oldest desert, have gone to the extremes, as spiders wheel to escape and a desert giraffe fights to defend his scant resources in the greatest giraffe battle ever filmed.
The jeweled-encrusted pectoral of King Tut is a hieroglyphic artefact of stunning craftsmanship and one of the greatest treasures of the pharaohs. Was this ancient glass scarab in Tutankhamun's tomb created by forces from beyond our world? Using new research and the latest tech, experts confront the ancient mystery of its flawless glass scarab. Is a 4,000 year old clay tablet the original instruction manual for Noah's ark? And how can a bizarre red moon rock contain signs of life?
The demands of a celebrity chef, especially one that runs three vibrant restaurants and a fried chicken franchise, are rigorous. The daily upkeep to ensure quality and consistency in his establishments keep him busy enough, but add to that the photo shoots, TV appearances, interviews and a constant online presence, and the tasks become herculean. When Ludo Lefebvre needs to escape the chaos, he heads to the lilting and poetic world of Paris in the spring, where the emphasis is placed on the joy and fun of life.
Jungles and rainforests are home to an incredible variety of species like preening birds, intelligent orangutans and remarkably ambitious ants.