How long is a piece of string?
In the spirit of a famous rhetorical question, this program explores the world of scientific measurement at the molecular and atomic level. Host Alan Davies tries to establish the length of a piece of household string—but what appears to be a simp...
Clinical Impressions: Identifying Mental Illness
How long can mental illness stay hidden, especially from the eyes of trained experts? This program rejoins a group of ten adults—five of them healthy and five of them with histories of mental illness—as psychiatric specialists try to spot and co...
Did Cooking Make Us Human?
The use of heat and utensils to process food may be more than a by-product of human evolution. According to theories presented in this program, cooking began much earlier than previously thought and ignited a series of changes that shaped our physic...
Who's Afraid of a Big Black Hole?
Black holes are by definition invisible, and there is no scientific theory that can adequately explain them. Nevertheless, researchers are determined to unravel the mysteries of black holes in the hope of answering some of the universe’s most pres...
Diet: A Look at Processed Food, Nutrition, and Obesity in the 20th Century
Attitudes about the industrialization of food have changed greatly over the past several decades. What used to be considered a scientific miracle now seems like a horrific joke: piglets being reared in incubators that look like tiny iron lungs; fish...
Don't Grow Old: Holding Back the Years
What makes our bodies age has long been a scientific mystery. This program looks at discoveries suggesting that the aging process can be manipulated, if not completely switched off. Examining the role of diet, the film profiles a married couple who ...