How the Universe Works - Black Holes

In the continuation of the "How the Universe Works" series, we have a documentary about the black holes, once again a very popular topic in all the cosmological shows. Entertaining and educational like the first episode, still most of the people that are up to date with cosmological discoveries won't find much new in this but I consider it one of the better shows about black holes.

How the Universe Works - Big Bang

First episode of the Discovery Channel's How the Universe Works series. Appropriate subject for the first episode is of course the Big Bang. Beginning of the Universe is a very common subject in documentaries and usually it's quite poorly explained, putting the weight on displaying the big explosion all over the screen and screaming about how big and hot it was while not giving any interesting information. This one on the other hand is pretty good, it still screams all that about explosions and heat but actually does a good job on informing the viewer what we currently know about it. My only disappointment was the part about the faster than light space expansion, it was poorly explained without going into any detail. Still it's better than most other such documentaries that don't even mention that.

Welcome to Mars

The ongoing unmanned Mars exploration mission, commenced in 2003 sent two robotic rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to explore the Martian surface and geology. This is a continuation to the Mars, Dead or Alive documentary. Once again it deals with the two Mars rovers, just this time showing all the technical problems and challenges they faced on the surface of the red planet.

Mars, Dead or Alive

Despite the title, this is not so much about Mars, but about Mars rovers, technical issues about them and the people behind them. It is quite surprising too see how much technical problems they really had and how they solved them. Rovers are extremely complex machines, requiring many custom made parts unique to them. This makes them very difficult and expensive to test; breaking a 5 million dollar worth equipment during stress test is not a desired outcome, but still it has to be done. Documentary is filled with details like this and is really worth watching to appreciate the work that has been done there.

Fractals - The Colors Of Infinity

A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole. The term fractal was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured". Arthur C. Clarke presents this unusual documentary on the mathematical discovery of the Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) in the visually spectacular world of fractal geometry. This show relates the science of the M-Set to nature in a way that is often called "The fingerprint of God". Dr. Mandelbrot in 1980 discovered the infinitely complex geometrical shape called the Mandelbrot Set using a very simple equation with computers and graphics.

The Elegant Universe

String theory, a developing theory in particle physics which attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. There aren't many documentaries on the subject unfortunately, so this one is in some parts a bit irritatingly slow,childishly simple and technical terms are kept at a minimum (and in some cases a bit below minimum), but aside from that, it still is very informing about the string theory itself.

It is an adaptation from a book by Brian Greene and was originally aired on PBS's NOVA.

Nanotopia

This is an aged nanotechnology themed BBC documentary dating from 1995. Although it is pretty old, especially when dealing in such advanced and experimental technology, it still offers great insights into the core principles of nano-tech. It's very technically detailed, describing exactly how is atomic manipulation possible, how can we detect individual atoms, and how nano devices are built from the ground up.

Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is hosting a new show, Into The Universe, containing three episodes. In a few hours Hawking gives us the ultimate short guide to the universe, based on real science, from the possibilities of alien life and time travel to the nature of the universe itself.

What really makes "Into the Universe" work, though, is Hawking himself, who attacks these ideas with the enthusiasm of a science-fiction aficionado, while laying out the theoretical case and science in clear yet authoritative terms. This documentary is filled with lots of information and high production value.

Dimensions

Here is a documentary about mathematical dimensions, or more correctly about spatial dimensions. In our daily lives we are, of course, aware of only 3 dimensions. This film deals in the mathematics of proving and displaying the objects and geometry of higher dimensions.
It starts of very elementary, with the explanation of the 2-dimensional space with meridians and parallels and then gets to more complicated stuff in the 4-dimensional space. There is also a chapter about complex numbers after that and a proof of a theorem of geometry. Usually I post the videos directly on the main page but the number of episodes here would put too much stress on it so please follow the link to watch it.

If We Had No Moon

This documentary starts with an interesting question: how would Earth look like if there was no Moon?
It has a surprising set of answers. In short, the planet Earth would be a much different place then it is now. Probably there wouldn't be human life on the planet, days would last only four hours, winds would blow at hurricane force and there would be a dense and toxic atmosphere resembling that of Venus. It also deals about the origin of the Moon, so it seems that it was formed by a massive planetary collision with the debris forming our satellite.
Oh, it also features Patrick Stewart making me waiting all the time to hear "Engage!"

Fermat's Last Theorem

This is a story about a mathematical breakthrough made by English mathematician Andrew Wiles in the late 20th century.

In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n greater than two. This theorem was first conjectured by Pierre de Fermat in 1637, famously in the margin of a copy of Arithmetica where he claimed he had a proof that was too large to fit in the margin. No successful proof was published until 1995 despite the efforts of many mathematicians. The unsolved problem stimulated the development of algebraic number theory in the 19th century and the proof of the modularity theorem in the 20th. It is among the most famous theorems in the history of mathematics.

In it's Image

To be honest, I'm not really certain what to think of this. It is actually a promotional video about the advancements in AI and discovering how exactly human consciousness works, the exact model of consciousness is discussed and it definitely is an interesting and believable model. Problems arise when I hear completely unverifiable claims...claiming that this model of AI has already made giant practical advancements in human knowledge, but for some reason they are not allowed to reveal them. Towards the end of the movie it gets worse by trying to push the whole universe into those consciousness models. I'm generally skeptical of such things, however the ideas from this film are quite interesting so in the end I decided to post it anyway. If someone knows a bit more about these concepts please feel free to comment.

Visions of the Future

Visions of the Future is a three part miniseries on the BBC hosted by Michio Kaku. In this new three-part series, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond. He argues that humankind is at a turning point in history. In this century, we are going to make the historic transition from the 'Age of Discovery' to the 'Age of Mastery', a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers. This will give us not only unparalleled possibilities but also great responsibilities.

Documentary is in three parts, with the first part discussing the advancements in computing and artificial intelligence. Constructing new fascinating virtual worlds, automated intelligent cars and star trek like holograms are just a part of it.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out was filmed in 1981 and will delight and inspire anyone who would like to share something of the joys of scientific discovery. Feynman is a master storyteller, and his tales – about childhood, Los Alamos, or how he won a Nobel Prize – are a vivid and entertaining insight into the mind of a great scientist at work and play.

The Story of Maths - complete series

Four part series about the history of mathematics, presented by Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy.

In the first episode (1-5), The Language of the Universe, after showing how fundamental mathematics is to our lives, du Sautoy explores the mathematics of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece.

The second episode (6-8), The Genius of the East, sees du Sautoy leaving the ancient world. When ancient Greece fell into decline, mathematical progress stagnated as Europe entered the Dark Ages, but in the East mathematics reached new heights. Du Sautoy visits China and explores how maths helped build imperial China and was at the heart of such amazing feats of engineering as the Great Wall.

The Frontiers of Space, a third episode (9-13). By the 17th century, Europe had taken over from the Middle East as the world’s powerhouse of mathematical ideas. Great strides had been made in understanding the geometry of objects fixed in time and space. The race was now on to discover the mathematics to describe objects in motion. In the third part of the series, Marcus du Sautoy explores the work of René Descartes and Pierre Fermat, whose famous Last Theorem would puzzle mathematicians for more than 350 years.

The fourth episode, To Infinity and Beyond (14-18), concludes the series. After exploring Georg Cantor’s work on infinity and Henri Poincare’s work on chaos theory, he looks at how mathematics was itself thrown into chaos by the discoveries of Kurt Godel, who showed that the unknowable is an integral part of maths, and Paul Cohen, who established that there were several different sorts of mathematics in which conflicting answers to the same question were possible. He concludes his journey by considering the great unsolved problems of mathematics today.

That's Impossible - Eternal Life

So once again, we have a documentary about longevity. It is produced by History Channel and one of the commentators is the editor of Scientific American so I guess it gives it a bit more credibility which it certainly needs because of many SF-like topics in it. Some of the things they talk about are really eye opening, especially the nano-technology which is already being used in the laboratory experiments. All in all, very informative and recommended.

Living Forever: The Longevity Revolution

Immortality. Life Extension. The Fountain of Youth. Real science or simply wishful thinking? Is it hope or is it hype? Scientists from around the world are racing to answer one of humanity's chief questions: can we turn back the human clock?

A decent documentary about the current researches in prolonging life expectancy. Several very interesting and promising methods are introduced along with the already popular caloric-restriction diet of which I am really no fan.
Enjoy.