Anyone (UK) catch those science programs last night on BBC4 ?
1) Horizon: Is Everything We Know About the Universe Wrong? - this one I have seen before....
QuoteThere's something very odd going on in space - something that shouldn't be possible. It is as though vast swathes of the universe are being hoovered up by a vast and unseen celestial vacuum cleaner... snip.....
...Dark flow is the latest in a long line of phenomena that have threatened to rewrite the textbooks. Does it herald a new era of understanding, or does it simply mean that everything we know about the universe is wrong?
2) Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (1/3) - New series with Jim Al-Khalili.
QuoteProfessor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Until fairly recently, electricity was seen as a magical power, but it is now the lifeblood of the modern world and underpins every aspect of our technological advancements.
I really enjoyed both of them. And there was an interesting one about the National Grid too.
I know some people that have said Horizon is not really that scientific but it's great for chumps like me who just like being amazed ;D
On iPlayer :
Is Everything We Know About The Universe Wrong? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rgg31/Horizon_20092010_Is_Everything_We_Know_About_The_Universe_Wrong/)
Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00kjq6h/Shock_and_Awe_The_Story_of_Electricity_Spark/)
Thanks for posting these vids Freddy, last night I watched "Is Everything We Know About The Universe Wrong?"
Enjoyed that and today I will be watching the other, they are my type of programs.
Also good to know that the BBC iPlayer vids embed into the site ok.
You are welcome my friend, I am glad you enjoyed it. The second one is good too, that Jim Al-Khalili chap does a great job of explaining things.
Unfortunately my screen displays "Not available in your area".
But sometimes I can see Jim Al-Khalili on my TV. Great movies... :thumbsup:
Don't feel bad, Mate. I get the same thing over here, as well. It seems that some Brits are rather stingy with sharing their videos (present company excepted, of course! :D ) :(
I watched both the programs on the day. Both ok.
I have never heard of 'dark flow' before. It appears that anything in cosmology that isn't understood is called 'dark' whatever.
I also like Jim Al-Khalili's style of program. Watched the chemistry mini series, looking forward to the next 2 in the lecky series.
I will check youtube at some point for our overseas viewers. iPlayer (BBC) doesn't work outside UK unless you can look via a UK proxy. It can be done.
I watched Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity last night, another good program. Looking forward to number 2.
It is a shame that people outside the UK cant see these programs but I guess thats how we do it over here, you have to pay a licence fee to watch our ( advert free ) BBC programs.
Im not saying it's a good thing its just the way it is.
It's the same thing over here, with HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, et al. But we DO get one BBC channel - BBC America - so I at least get to watch Dr. Who. :)
BBC have blocked the ones on YouTube not surprisingly.
Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity : part 2 is on tonight, BBC4, 9.00 pm.
That gives me just under 3 hours to track down satellite codes, point my dish in the correct direction, re-aim an NSA spy sat or two, and hack my satellite box to receive the signal. :P Nope. Not gonna happen. :(
You can do it Dave you can do it ;D
I tried watching the videos through a proxy server, but the BBC has seemingly caught on to that trick. Of course, they don't tell you that they're on to you, no. They just tell you, "Sorry, your phone does not support BBC iPlayer. More phones will be supported in the future." - my phone??? Really?
Even if it did work, somehow I doubt you would get the bandwidth required to play the video through a proxy server.
I watched the second episode last night and it put me straight on who invented the electric light bulb, after watching a black and white film many years ago I thought Thomas Edison was the man but it would seem that the film had an American slant, in reality he was just one piece of the puzzle.
http://www.unmuseum.org/lightbulb.htm (http://www.unmuseum.org/lightbulb.htm)
Yep I have never seen them mention Swan before.
In the old black and white film it was all Edison's work they never mentioned how other people had already invented it.
Good to put the record straight.
Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity : part 3 is on tonight, BBC4, 9.00 pm.
I watched it.
So the next thing we need to do is find a superconductor that works at room temperature, then we've made it :D
Excellent program BBC four, keep them coming, we the public need to be educated and what a great way of doing it.
Yeah I remember way back when I was doing Physics we talked about room temperature super conductors.
It was nice and somewhat bizarrely coincidental that at the end he also demonstrated the quantum locking thing too 8)
I agree I could watch this kind of program every night. :D
You've actually studied physics and didn't know about anti-matter, Freddy? (I am ref'ing another thread)
I watched this too and really would like to know more but I stumble at the maths. I know what some of the symbols mean but it looses me. I am totally happy with the maths of about 400 years ago, some stuff after and as for the last 100 years; forget it.
Anyone ever heard of a 'Cooper Pair'?
I only did 'O' level Physics and we never covered really exotic stuff like that.
I don't remember Cooper Pair nope. :scratch-head:
To be honest, I've learnt far more since school by reading popular science books on the subject.
Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' is a good one. There are many others. Ask.
A 'Cooper Pair' is phyically what is forming to create superconductivity. 2 electrons pair up and have no resistance for some reason. Wiki here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_pair).
The holy grail is to find a room temperature superconductor. Interesting snippet in Pt3 was the use of red wine to make the superconductor more efficient. Good ol' trial and error.