Browse documentaries

Comedian Ben Miller returns to his roots as a physicist to try to answer a deceptively simple question: what is one degree of temperature? His quest takes him to the frontiers of current science as he meets researchers working on the hottest and coldest temperatures in the universe, and to a lab where he experiences some of the strangest effects of quantum physics - a place where super-cooled liquids simply pass through solid glass. Plus, Ben installs his very own Met office weather station at home. Ben's investigations in this personal and passionate film highlight the importance of measurement and accuracy in the 21st century.

Isaac Newton - brilliant rational mathematician or master of the occult? This innovative biography reveals Newton as both a hermit and a tyrant, a heretic and an alchemist. Magical images mix with actors and experts to bring alive Britain's greatest scientific genius in his own words.

Documentary of earth's violent past and tectonic plates

Black holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question - what was there before the Big Bang? The trouble is that researching them is next to impossible. Black holes are by definition invisible and there's no scientific theory able to explain them. Despite these obvious obstacles, Horizon meets the astronomers attempting to image a black hole for the very first time and the theoretical physicists getting ever closer to unlocking their mysteries. It's a story that takes us into the heart of a black hole and to the very edge of what we think we know about the universe.

Light Fantastic is the title of a television documentary series that explores the phenomenon of light

The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Serbo-Croatian: Tajna Nikole Tesle), is a 1980 Yugoslav biographical film which details events in the life of legendary inventor Nikola Tesla (portrayed by Serbian actor Petar Božovi?), born to ethnic Serb parents in 1856 Croatia (at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), who arrived in New York in 1884, became American citizen in 1891, made immense contributions to science, and died in New York at age 86, during the middle of World War II in 1943.

Wings have evolved four times in the history of life on planet Earth. Insects, Pterosaurs, Dinosaurs and Bats. This series looks at these amazing evolutionary developments and the advantages which these features provide to the organism which has them. Life conquers the air.

Academy Award-winning actor and space enthusiast Morgan Freeman executive produces,hosts and narrates this exploration of the greatest mysteries of the universe. This new series, produced by Freeman's Revelations Entertainment, seeks the answers to the big questions: Are we alone? Where did we come from? Is there life on other planets? From the latest work at NASA and private enterprise facilities to the latest theories from futurists and physicists, this series looks at black holes, colonizing the planets, string theory and more. Science Channel invites viewers on the journey as Morgan Freeman picks up where Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' left off and explores the new frontiers of what is beyond earth.

The moon is such a familiar presence in the sky that most of us take it for granted. But what if it wasn't where it is now? How would that affect life on earth? Space scientist and lunar fanatic Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores our intimate relationship with the moon. Besides orchestrating the tides, the moon dictates the length of a day, the rhythm of the seasons and the very stability of our planet. Yet the moon is always on the move. In the past it was closer to the Earth and in the future it'll be farther away. That it is now perfectly placed to sustain life is pure luck, a cosmic coincidence. Using computer graphics to summon up great tides and set the Earth spinning on its side, Aderin-Pocock implores us to look at the moon afresh: to see it not as an inert rock, but as a key player in the story of our planet, past, present and future.