For centuries, cities have been built near a fresh water supply. Without water, we'd be lucky to live three days. This most basic human need can be deadly too... the wrong supply can poison us, or get too close or careless and it can drown thousands in an instant. With every passing year, the challenge of providing water to billions of people becomes harder and harder.
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Electricity powers the life support systems that keep our cities running. Lights, transport, communications, and even hospitals rely on this invisible force. Without it, our cities come to a standstill and lives are put at risk. Meet the people who spend tireless hours to make sure that city power grids remain safe, efficient, and uninterrupted
2013 • Technology
Food- human life can't exist without it. It's a city's most important source of energy. In New York alone, 8 million people consume 10,000 tonnes of food every day. Without new supplies, cities will run out of fresh food in a matter of days.
2013 • Technology
The world's cities are growing at a faster rate than ever before. An estimated 75 million people around the world move to an urban area every year. And as our metropolises become more and more crowded, architects, designers, and builders face a constant challenge.
2013 • Technology
If people are the lifeblood of cities, then transport links are its veins and arteries. If they're cut off, the city will die. Thousands of people work every day at making it possible for city dwellers to be where they need to be, when they need to be there. It's an endless demand of brain and brawn. Without the army of drivers, diggers, and planners, our great cities would come to a halt.
2013 • Technology
For centuries, cities have been built near a fresh water supply. Without water, we'd be lucky to live three days. This most basic human need can be deadly too... the wrong supply can poison us, or get too close or careless and it can drown thousands in an instant. With every passing year, the challenge of providing water to billions of people becomes harder and harder.
2013 • Technology
Mike Wooldridge reveals the huge role AI already plays in our daily lives – sometimes without us even realising its role. Mike investigates how games like chess and Go have become a training ground for AI, helping to bring about key advances we are now seeing in the field, and he reveals how simple methods of learning, like rewarding success, have been used to train AI in spectacular ways. We also feature some of the revolutionary innovations that AI has brought about in healthcare, from the use of AI tools in planning cancer treatment, to monitoring Parkinson's. Mike is joined by members of DeepMind's AlphaFold team, who use AI to predict the structures of large numbers of proteins, which will revolutionise the creation of new drugs across the world. We also reveal the huge impact AI has had on our creative lives – as it is able to write songs and create artworks in seconds. With the help of artist Eric Drass (aka shardcore), the audience creates a collaborative artwork and discovers how image generation works. Mike explores the thorny question of who the creator is – the AI itself, the human who set it to work, or the creators of the art that AI has learned from? The Christmas Lectures are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1825, when Michael Faraday founded the series. They are the world's longest running science television series, and always promise to inspire and amaze each year through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.
S1E2 • BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: The Truth about AI • 2023 • Technology
How does Fusion Energy work and is it a good idea?
Jeff takes a tour of the RV industry and befriends the people that call RVs their home away from home.
S1E8 • The World According to Jeff Goldblum • 2020 • Technology
The sea level in Venice has increased drastically in the last century or so, threatening the very existence of the city. Global warming and the harmful effects of tourism have amplified the phenomenon of acqua alta (sudden rise in sea level), rendering the traditional responses of inhabitants obsolete. It is urgent to act today. Projects conceived in laboratories across the globe are joining forces to save the city. These include RAMSES, a 3D modelization of the lagoon produced using lasers, which analyzes rises in water level; and MOSE, a series of movable dams costing over 4 billion euros, intended to block the sea in case of acqua alta. The film will take us on this extraordinary journey, the technological and scientific struggle for the survival of Venice, a survival that has been in doubt from its very construction.
2018 • Technology
If people are the lifeblood of cities, then transport links are its veins and arteries. If they're cut off, the city will die. Thousands of people work every day at making it possible for city dwellers to be where they need to be, when they need to be there. It's an endless demand of brain and brawn. Without the army of drivers, diggers, and planners, our great cities would come to a halt.
S1E4 • How Cities Work • 2013 • Technology
Gabriel Gatehouse tries to solve the biggest mystery in tech: who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin? Now a multi trillion-dollar industry, its pseudonymous inventor has not been heard from since 2011. Whoever it is could be one of the richest people on the planet, and yet their identity remains unknown. Whilst on the trail for Bitcoin's inventor, Gabriel uncovers a conspiracy to end democracy and transform the world as we know it.
2025 • Technology