Across Continents • 2019 • episode "S1E2" • Speed

59:01

The final lecture in the series begins with a 'heist'. A jewel thief steals a precious man-made diamond from the Royal Institution's collection. Can forensic evidence conclusively identify and convict the criminal responsible? To find out, the Royal Institution's lecture theatre is transformed into a courtroom and the audience acts as jury on the case, with a special guest king's counsel invited to defend the suspect. Forensic evidence is based on probability; it can never be 100 per cent certain. So, how convincing does the evidence need to be for the court of the Royal Institution's own jury to reach a guilty verdict? Includes insights from real criminal investigations.

S1E3 • Secrets of Forensic Science • 2022 • Science

59:01

Antarctica is the last great wilderness. It's the coldest, windiest, driest and most isolated place on Earth. And every winter, for over three months of the year, the sun never rises. But it's also home to the British Antarctic Survey's Halley Research Station. A veteran of living and working at Halley in the early eighties, BBC weatherman Peter Gibbs makes an emotional return to the place he once called home. A place that, during his time, was key to the discovery of the ozone hole. The journey starts with an arduous 12-day, 3000-mile voyage onboard the RRS Ernest Shackleton. Once on the ice shelf, Peter is delighted to finally arrive at the futuristic research station and marvels at the cutting edge science being done at Halley today. From vital discoveries about how our lives are vulnerable to the sun's activities, to studying interplanetary travel and the threat of man-made climate change. But Peter's journey is also something of a rescue mission. The research station's home is a floating ice shelf that constantly moves and cracks, and the ice shelf has developed a chasm that could cast Halley adrift on a massive iceberg.

Horizon • 2016 • Science

59:00

Professor Sue Black is joined by Silent Witness's Emilia Fox to reveal the secrets of forensic science. Sue shows how the stories of our lives are hidden in the very fabric of our bodies by examining an archaeological skeleton, using techniques she uses in modern-day forensic investigations. She gradually builds up its identity until a pile of old bones once again becomes a real person. She explains how extraordinary clues in our bones can reveal everything from our age and our sex to our diets and our ancestry – there's even a bone in our ear that can reveal where our mother lived while she was pregnant. Professor Black's investigations into the trauma marks visible in the 1,000-year-old skeleton's bones reveal where this person died, and how they died. In the process, she tells this individual's extraordinary life story and sheds light on one of the darkest days in English history. The Christmas Lectures date back to 1825 when Michael Faraday founded the lectures for children at the Royal Institution. They are the world's longest running science television series, which today use demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.

S1E1 • Secrets of Forensic Science • 2022 • Science

53:17

Without the chemistry of photosynthesis, ozone, and a molecule called Rubisco, none of us would be here. So how did we get so lucky? To find out, host David Pogue investigates the surprising molecules that allowed life on Earth to begin, and ultimately thrive. Along the way, he finds out what we’re all made of—literally.

S1E2 • Beyond the Elements • 2020 • Science

114:10

Interweaves the present-day story of the Rosens, a young family on an odyssey to find a cure for their four-year old daughter's rare genetic disease, with stories of the exciting discoveries of the early pioneers in genetics — Gregor Mendel, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Francis Crick and James Watson. This episode also tracks the dark period in human history when a little genetic knowledge was used to justify terrifying human experiments that culminated in the Holocaust.

S1E1 • The Gene: An Intimate History • 2020 • Science

14:48

Evolutionary anthropologists are probing the depths of animal intelligence like never before, revealing stunning new insights about humans too.

S1E6 • Stories of Impact • 2019 • Science