Connections: countdown
What happens when you combine a carbon arc light, a billiard ball coating, a spoked wheel and consecutive images? Motion pictures! Complex and sometimes incredible events led to Thomas Edison's remarkable invention; the beginnings of limelight on a ...
Connections: thunder in the skies
A dramatically colder climate gripped Europe during the 13th century, profoundly affecting the course of history for the next seven centuries. The changes in energy usage transformed architecture and forced the creation of new power sources. The com...
Connections: yesterday, tomorrow and you
"Why did we do it this way?" Essential moments from the previous programs are reviewed to illustrate the common factors that make for change. Will they go on operating to affect our futures? And if so, can we recognize them? The second half looks at...
Connections: the long chain
Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic trade routes. Competing British lines induced America to produce pitch to protect hulls of their royal vessels. This ...
Connections: the trigger effect
In this series, James Burke examines how various scientific, historical and social factors gave rise to technological advances, including atomic weapons, nautical navigation and a growing dependence on technology. Beginning in Egypt, this program ex...
The living planet : a portrait of the earth: the northern forests
Trees of the coniferous forests have special adaptations that enable them to survive long cold winters. Many animals that inhabit these vast forests are dependent on the trees for leaves, cones or bark. Further south, in the deciduous woodland, we s...
The shock of the new: trouble in Utopia
German visionary architects such as Scharoun, Finsterlin, Luckhardt, Taut planned their Wagnerian dreams with glass palaces in the Alps, as did Italians such as Sant' Elia and Chiattone. Then, Bauhaus and the functionalist faith - Mies van der Rohe,...
The shock of the new: the threshold of liberty
Surrealism was the last revolutionary art movement of the 20th century, but not so much a "movement" as a religion. Despised by formalists, its effects were enormous. The Surrealists' desire to liberate the unconscious mind helped the "primitive" Ro...
The shock of the new: the view from the edge
Figurative Expressionism was ruined as an esthetic possibility by the realities of World War II and its death camps when photography surpassed any distortions of the body an artist could imagine. Many artists struggled but lost in their attempts to ...
The living planet : a portrait of the earth: the baking deserts
Desert animals must survive two demanding conditions - heat and drought. They have solved these problems in a variety of ingenious ways. Beetles and strange plants in the Namib Desert collect fog. Lizards gear their lifestyle precisely to the positi...