The search for extraterrestrial life is an age-old quest. But recent breakthroughs make today an era like no other in the history of astronomy. From the exhilarating probing of our own solar system and the Kepler mission’s astounding discovery of thousands of extrasolar planets, to the next-generation telescopes under development, the prospects for finding life beyond Earth have never been stronger. Still, daunting hurdles remain. How can we study anything light years away, let alone a little planet? In the vast universe, where should we even start to look? Is our failure to hear any other voices in the galaxy a sign that we are special? Join leading explorers now searching the galaxy for life and intelligence on other planets—and asks, if we do find other life in the universe... what would that mean?
Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry explores the mystery of maths. It underpins so much of our modern world that it's hard to imagine life without its technological advances, but where exactly does maths come from? Is it invented like a language or is it something discovered and part of the fabric of the universe? It's a question that some of the most eminent mathematical minds have been wrestling with. To investigate this question, Hannah goes head first down the fastest zip wire in the world to learn more about Newton's law of gravity, she paraglides to understand where the theory of maths and its practice application collide, and she travels to infinity and beyond to discover that some infinities are bigger than others. In this episode, Hannah goes back to the time of the ancient Greeks to find out why they were so fascinated by the connection between beautiful music and maths. The patterns our ancestors found in music are all around us, from the way a sunflower stores its seeds to the number of petals in a flower. Even the shapes of some of the smallest structures in nature, such as viruses, seem to follow the rules of maths. All strong evidence for maths being discovered. But there are those who claim maths is all in our heads and something we invented. To find out if this is true, Hannah has her brain scanned. It turns out there is a place in all our brains where we do maths, but that doesn't prove its invented. Experiments with infants, who have never had a maths lesson in their lives, suggests we all come hardwired to do maths. Far from being a creation of the human mind, this is evidence for maths being something we discover. Then along comes the invention of zero to help make counting more convenient and the creation of imaginary numbers, and the balance is tilted in the direction of maths being something we invented. The question of whether maths is invented or discovered just got a whole lot more difficult to answer
New York's Central Park Tower is the second tallest building in the US, and as engineers and builders race to complete this 1,550-foot-tall mega build, they use cutting-edge science and engineering to battle high altitudes and brutal weather. From the world's longest tunnels to the world's most advanced skyscraper, the series Building Giants reveals the extraordinary innovations that help record-breaking superstructures to be built, and uncovers the inner secrets of how they work.
The oceans define the earth. They are crucial to life and we used to think that they were unique to our blue planet. But we were wrong. It has recently been discovered that there are oceans all over our solar system, and they are very similar to our own. And now scientists are going on an epic journey in search of new life in places that never seemed possible. Nasa is even planning to dive to the depths of a strange, distant ocean in a remarkable submarine. Discover that the hunt for oceans in space is marking the dawn of a new era in the search for alien life.
The human eye can see extraordinary detail, but the eye of a needle held at arm's length is pretty much at the limit of our vision. Anything smaller is simply invisible, at least to the naked eye. But what if we could see this hidden world all around us in greater detail and magnification than ever before? How different would our familiar surroundings then seem? Richard Hammond explores the astonishing miniature universe all around us, revealing that small is not only beautiful, it can also be very, very powerful. From seeing the microscopic changes to ice crystals that can trigger an avalanche to watching in horror the invisible aftermath of a sneeze on a commuter train and learning how the surface of an ordinary-looking plant hides an astounding secret that will make walking on the moon safer, Richard harnesses cutting-edge technologies to transport the viewer into a spectacular micro realm.
Why were the most fearsome warriors our planet has ever known stopped by a flaming light in the sky? How did Columbus use secret knowledge of the heavens to cheat death in the New World? Our ancestors saw a universe
filled with bad omens. The film examines the interpretations by ancient peoples of celestial phenomena as bad omens, and the impact that the perceived omens may have had on history.
Still, daunting hurdles remain. How can we study anything light years away, let alone a little planet? In the vast universe, where should we even start to look? Is our failure to hear any other voices in the galaxy a sign that we are special? Join leading explorers now searching the galaxy for life and intelligence on other planets—and asks, if we do find other life in the universe... what would that mean?