supernovaexplosion:

I posted this already, but I decided to repost it as an image post rather than a text post because it looks nicer! I’ve deleted the original text-only post.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while

When I’m browsing the internet on my laptop I like to have the TV on in the background, and I realised that most of the time I end up watching something science-related, whether it be on one of the documentary channels, a DVD or a download. I’ve seen them all before but I never get bored of them, so I thought I’d compile a list of my favourites and share them.

I have added a link to any videos I could find online via YouTube or similar. For those I couldn’t find, I will mark with [bt] if they are available to download via BitTorrent and you can go and search for them yourself, if interested.

Okay, let’s begin:

Earth Story

An in-depth, eight-part series filmed in 1998 looking at the history of our planet from its birth to the present day.

We all know that the Earth is alive, but not just teeming with life; it is a living entity. It moves, deep inside and on the surface. Moreover, scientists have now discovered that the origins of life itself depended on the active geology of our planet. The earth is more than simply our birthplace, it is quite literally the thing that gave us birth.

Filmed over three years and at a cost of £3 million, Professor Aubrey Manning takes us on this amazing journey of discovery. In locations as diverse as the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the polar ice cap, the crater of an active volcano in Hawaii and the peaks of the Himalayas, it follows scientists as they piece together the clues that reveal the secrets of the planet and the life it sustains.

[Read more]

[Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3] [Ep. 4] [Ep. 5] [Ep. 6] [Ep. 7] [Ep. 8]

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Professor Iain Stewart

No, that’s not the title of a documentary, it’s the name of a Scottish geologist who has made some of my favourite science documentaries on TV in recent years, which include:

• Journeys from the Centre of the Earth/Hot Rocks: Geology of Civilization (U.S. title) [bt] [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3] [Ep. 4]  (Episodes 5 & 6 aren’t on YouTube for some strange reason. Why would someone upload the first 4 but not those?)
• Journeys into the Ring of Fire
• Earth: The Power of the Planet/Earth: The Biography (U.S. title) [bt] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3] [Ep. 5] (Again, episodes 1 & 4 aren’t available … )
• Ten Things You Didn’t Know About… Volcanoes/Tsunamis/Earthquakes [Watch]/Avalanches
• How the Earth Made Us/How the Earth Changed History (U.S. title) [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3] [Ep. 4] [Ep. 5]
• How to Grow a Planet [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3]
  

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Professor Jim Al-Khalili

Jim Al-Khalili OBE is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. He has hosted several BBC productions about science and is a frequent commentator about science in other British media venues.

Here’s some of his work that I’ve seen:

• The Hunt for Higgs [Watch]
  
• Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3]
  
• Horizon: Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? [Watch]
  
• Everything and Nothing [bt] - two linked TV documentaries on Cosmology (‘Everything’ about astrophysics and The Big Bang, ‘Nothing’ about quantum physics and the vacuum) - one of my personal favourites!
• Chemistry: A Volatile History [bt]
  
• The Secret Life of Chaos
• Lost Horizons: The Big Bang [Watch]
  
• Atom [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3]
  
• The Riddle of Einstein’s Brain [Watch]
  

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Professor Brian Cox

Rockstar, particle physicist, TV presenter and all-round nice guy Brian Cox has become a household name thanks to his hit TV series’, ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ and ‘Wonders of the Universe’, but they aren’t all he’s done on TV. His other work includes:

• Horizon: Einstein’s Equation of Life and Death [Watch]
  
• Horizon: Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony [Watch]
  
• Horizon: The Six Billion Dollar Experiment [bt]
• The Big Bang Machine [Watch]
• Horizon: What on Earth is Wrong with Gravity [bt]
• Horizon: Do You Know What TIme It Is? [Watch]
• Horizon: Can we Make a Star on Earth [Watch]
• Stargazing LIVE [S1 Ep. 1] [S1 Ep. 2] [S1 Ep. 3] [S2 Ep. 1] [S2 Ep. 2] [S2 Ep. 3]
• A Night With The Stars [Watch]
  

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Horizon

I’ve listed a few from the BBC’s Horizon series above, but here’s a few more worth watching:

• Who’s Afraid of a Big Black Hole? [Watch]
  
• Is Everything We Know About the Universe Wrong? [Watch]
  
• What Really Killed the Dinosaurs? [Watch]
• The Day the Earth Nearly Died [Watch]
• Supermassive Black Holes [bt]

Whilst going through the rather extensive list of episodes, I spotted quite a few more that I think I’ve seen but I’m not 100% certain so I’ve omitted them for now.

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Professor Marcus du Sautoy

Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy OBE is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. A few of his documentaries that I’ve seen are:

• The Story of Maths [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3] [Ep. 4]
• The Code [Ep. 1] [Ep. 2] [Ep. 3]
• Faster Than the Speed of Light? [Watch]

Phew! That was more work than I thought it would be. Anyway, I hope anyone that reads this post will enjoy some of these great productions as much as I have (and still do), and will maybe discover something they hadn’t seen before.

Enjoy.

Amazing list of top quality videos. Go explore & expand, everyone! For science!

(via supernovaexplosion-deactivated2)