Here you will find a collection of the best scientific documentaries available online. Focus here is on quality above quantity. There is an endless heap of documentaries that are "scientific" but in fact are not, instead filled with metaphysical ideas, UFOs, bio energies and other meta-sciences. You will not find those here. Other thing is the quantity of information in every documentary itself, often being very low but instead full of special effects and dramatic monologue. Hopefully you won't find those here either.
What you will find are informative, revealing, interesting, mind-boggling and above all scientific documentaries about the marvels of the world surrounding us, or the marvels of human ingenuity.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
