'Speed' investigates mankind's insatiable necessity to move faster and further; for pleasure, for work, to explore, to survive. From ancient outriggers, to modern bullet trains, to the interplanetary travel of tomorrow; This series is a thrilling joyride through the Science and History of travel. 'Across Continents:' Never in the history of humanity have so many of us been mobile, never has our demand for fast, efficient and safe transportation been so high, and never have we relied so heavily on technology to deliver. New innovations propel us into the world of self-driving cars and ultra high-speed trains.
Over billions of years, planet Earth has become home to an amazing interdependent ecosystem, containing a dizzying variety of animals and plants. But how did life here begin? And does it exist anywhere outside of our solar system? We uncover the secrets of our world by tracking the evolution of the cosmos itself, from the Big Bang onwards. Follow scientists responsible for some of the major breakthroughs in understanding the origins of life and witness how their discoveries are fundamentally changing the way we perceive the universe.
Recently, the Event Horizon Telescope project captured the first image ever of a black hole. Now, new discoveries might finally reveal how supermassive black holes are made, and using the latest technology, experts are on the verge of understanding how these monsters grow and how they affect life on our planet. Supermassive black holes: Gargantuan monsters that lurk at the center of galaxies. Right now you are travelling at half a million miles an hour around a giant black hole four million times the mass of the sun. But there's a mystery about these colossal beasts. We have no idea where they came from. How did they get so big so quickly?
For most of our history, we humans considered ourselves unique. But now, a new, artificial species might challenge our superiority. Mechanical beings have the potential to change everything. How we got them is a story of astonishing twists and amazing turns to achieve us the machine that may turn out to be the most revolutionary technology ever conceived--the robot. Learn how robots were first conceptualized in ancient Rome and see how their use has evolved over the centuries, from the calculator to the Mars Lander. Then, take a sneak peek at what future robots will be able to do. Narrated by Patrick Stewart.
Dial in to the fascinating history of the smartphone, from its roots in Morse Code to the latest models. Discover how the next generation of Smartphones will allow us to communicate through them just by thinking. For most of history, we were isolated from the rest of humankind, but the urge to communicate with one another was so powerful that it changed how we interact and gave us a new interface with the world. The story of how we got here is full of the most astonishing twists and unlikely turns to create a device that put the whole world in our hands, the smartphone.
Prepare yourself for a groundbreaking series that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Cameras in space will tell stories of life on our planet from a brand new perspective. Satellites follow an elephant family struggling through drought, reveal previously unknown emperor penguin colonies from the colour of their poo, and discover mysterious ice rings that could put seal pups in danger. Using cameras on the ground, in the air and in space, Earth from Space follows nature’s greatest spectacles, weather events and dramatic seasonal changes. This is our home, as we’ve never seen it before.
'Across Continents:' Never in the history of humanity have so many of us been mobile, never has our demand for fast, efficient and safe transportation been so high, and never have we relied so heavily on technology to deliver. New innovations propel us into the world of self-driving cars and ultra high-speed trains.