Hawking joins science and imagination to explore one of the most important mysteries facing humankind - the possibility of alien, intelligent life and the likelihood of future "contact."
The promise of time travel has long been one of the world's favorite scientific "what-ifs?" Hawking explores all the possibilities, warping the very fabric of time and space as he goes.
1997 • Science
In two mind-blowing hours, Hawking reveals the wonders of the cosmos to a new generation.
1997 • Physics
Why do storms spin in different directions depending on their location—and why do they spin in the first place?
2013 • Science
Comedian Jimmy Carr takes over Horizon for this one-off special programme, produced as part of BBC2's sitcom season. Jimmy turns venerable documentary strand Horizon into a chat show, with eminent laughter scientists as guests and a studio audience to use as guinea pigs. Jimmy and his guests try to get to the bottom of what laughter is, why we enjoy it so much and what, if anything, it has to do with comedy. Between them, and with the help of contributions from other scientists on film, Jimmy and guests discover that laughter is much older than our species, and may well have contributed to making us human. With professors Sophie Scott, Robin Dunbar and Peter McGraw.
The media have been talking about “genetically modified humans” and “designer babies.” But what they’re really talking about is germ-line engineering: a process that could help eliminate heritable diseases. So why do some scientists want to pause the research?
The last episode in the series examines how humans perceive and experience time, investigating the internal body clock which tells people when to eat, drink, sleep and relax. The importance of accurately measuring time is explored in relation to human evolution, and there's a debate about whether mankind will ever be able to travel between past, present and future.
3/3 • Time Machine • Science
Throughout history, human society has run on trade, and trade moved on the oceans. The innovations that allowed faster an more accurate oceanic travel revolutionized to the world. New inventions now help people move on water for fun and recreation.
David Spiegelhalter discusses how the work of amateur mathematician Thomas Bayes and statistician Ronald Fisher helped to shape the current thinking of probability.
5/6 • People of Science with Brian Cox • 2018 • Science
