Last Watched

Alien Galaxies

   2007    Science
Our galaxy is one of hundreds of billions in the universe. View of universe through the Hubble telescope and go back almost all the way to the Big Bang.
Series: The Universe

Super Telescope: Mission to the Edge of the Universe

   2022    Technology
As NASA releases the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, this film tells the inside story of the telescope's construction and the astronomers taking its first picture of distant stars and galaxies. Will it be the deepest image of our universe ever taken? The successor to Hubble, and 100 times more powerful, the James Webb is the most technically advanced telescope ever built. It will look further back in time than Hubble to an era around 200 million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies appeared. Webb's primary mission is to capture the faint light from these objects on the edge of our visible universe so that scientists can learn how they formed, but its instruments are so sensitive it could also be the first telescope to detect signs of life on a distant planet.
The James Webb Telescope is an £8 billion gamble on the skills of its engineering team. It’s the first telescope designed to unfold in space – a complicated two-week operation in which 178 release devices must all work - 107 of them on the telescope's sun shield alone. If just one fails, the expensive telescope could become a giant piece of space junk.
From its conception in the late 1980s, the construction of Webb has posed a huge technical challenge. The team must build a mirror six times larger than Hubble’s and construct a vast sun shield the size of a tennis court, fold them up so they fit into an Ariane 5 rocket, then find a way to unfold them in space. This film tells the inside story of the James Webb Space Telescope in the words of the engineers who built it and the astronomers who will use it.

Contact

   2018    Technology    HD
Minerva B is a small rocky planet just like earth, where spacecraft Artemis has found water, organic molecules, and complex creatures. Is there something more to find?
'I am the mind of the spaceship, alone among the stars. 50 years ago, from a planet far away, the planet you call home, I launched. A journey of 28 trillion miles across the yawning time of space to the exoplanet, Minerva B: a small, rocky planet, much like Earth, but orbiting another sun. Here, I have found water, organic molecules, and microorganisms. When the news of my discovery reaches Earth years from now, some of you will be amazed. But others will remain unsatisfied, and you will ask, have I not found animals or birds? Have I not met intelligent life like us? And so, my search continues. I will find life of marvellous complexity, and the traces of a devastating loss.'
Series: Living Universe

Should We go to Mars

   2017    Technology
The attempt to send and land astronauts on Mars risks billions of dollars and the lives of those brave enough to attempt it. Is the possible benefit really worth the risk? And is it really achievable? Guiding us through this ethical and scientific minefield is Dr Kevin Fong. Kevin's diverse background in astrophysics, aeronautics and medicine makes him uniquely placed to understand the technical and human challenges of this perilous journey. He leads us through the journey to Mars stage by stage. For Kevin, not only is this the toughest journey we will ever attempt, it is one that he feels we ultimately must make if we are to survive as a species.
Series: The Big Think

Zeitgeist Moving Forward

   2011    Culture
A feature length documentary work which presents a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter will transcend the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical 'life ground' attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a 'Resource-Based Economy'.
Series: Zeitgeist

Mauritius: The Extreme Punishment Prison

   2020    Culture
The tropical island of Mauritius is home to Melrose maximum security prison, where 800 of the country's worst drug smugglers, sex offenders and murderers are locked up. Every convict is watched day and night and even the smallest infraction is met with extreme punishment.
Series: Inside the World Toughest Prisons
The Normans

The Normans

2010  History
Through the Wormhole

Through the Wormhole

2011  Science
Life in the Undergrowth

Life in the Undergrowth

2005  Nature
Human universe

Human universe

2014  Technology
The Truth About

The Truth About

2018  Medicine