No music. No commentary. HOMO SAPIENS is a film about the finiteness and fragility of human existence and the end of the industrial age, and what it means to be a human being. What will remain of our lives after we’re gone? Empty spaces, ruins, cities increasingly overgrown with vegetation, crumbling asphalt: the areas we currently inhabit, though humanity has disappeared. Now abandoned and decaying, gradually reclaimed by nature after being taken from it so long ago.
Professor Chris Jackson charts the planet's changing climate. He shows how the oldest rocks and fossils provide evidence of radical climate changes throughout its history, revealing that what drives them is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
1/2 • BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures - Planet Earth: A User's Guide • 2020 • Environment
Scientists are just now unlocking the amazing secrets of how rain is made; some raindrops form around micrometeorites from outer space, others are created by bacteria that float into the upper atmosphere.
S1E1 • Secrets of the Earth • 2013 • Environment
The evidence, structure, history and potential threat of the Yellowstone super volcano are described.
S1E8 • How the Earth Was Made • 2009 • Environment
A look at sharks and whales that go to great lengths to survive in the South Pacific.
3/6 • South Pacific • Environment
Iain travels into the stratosphere in a Cold War fighter, gets his eyebrows singed in Siberia and discovers why Argentina is one of the stormiest places on Earth. All to show why our atmosphere is unique and utterly crucial for life.
The enduring luster of gold, the conductivity of copper, the strength of steel—the special properties of metals have reshaped societies and defined eras; they have such an important role in human history that entire ages have been named after them. But what gives metals their astounding characteristics? From the perfect ring of a bronze bell to the awe-striking steel construction of Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium, how have humans perfected metalworking? And how have metals enabled our modern hi-tech world? Explore the science of metals with chemists and engineers as they literally test the mettle of metals and investigate how these remarkable materials have ushered humanity from the Stone Age to the stars.
Part 2 • Treasures of the Earth • 2016 • Environment