We are in the midst of the greatest era of space discovery. Twenty first century spacecraft and sophisticated imaging technology are venturing into uncharted territory every day and much of the extraordinary phenomena are happening right in our own cosmic backyard. This series features computer-generated imagery and computer graphics of astronomical objects in the universe plus interviews with experts who study in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, and astrophysics. Episode 8 Space Wars - Outer space is already an essential part of America's ability to fight wars. Our military depends on satellites for many things, such as communications, reconnaissance and targeting information. But so far, no country has put weapons into space, although the U.S. and China have both shown they can shoot down satellites with ground-based missiles. If weapons do become a part of space, how will they work, how effective will they be, and what type of damage ...

The Gutenberg Press was perhaps the most revolutionary machine ever invented. Stephen Fry discovers the lengths to which Gutenberg went to keep his project secret then helps to build a working model of the press and explores how print democratised knowledge by making the written word accessible to all. Stephen Fry investigates the story of one of the most important machines ever invented - the Gutenberg Press ...

We are in the midst of the greatest era of space discovery. Twenty first century spacecraft and sophisticated imaging technology are venturing into uncharted territory every day and much of the extraordinary phenomena are happening right in our own cosmic backyard. Episode 4 Time Travel - One of the universe's most enduring mysteries is time travel. Discover why time travel into the future is unavoidable in the Einsteinian world of relativity. As for the past the laws of physics don't tell us it's impossible, but the bizarre consequences of going into the past and altering the future make for mind bending science. Finally go for the future by traveling to the nearest star, 4.3 light years away in only 45 days ...

We are in the midst of the greatest era of space discovery. Twenty first century spacecraft and sophisticated imaging technology are venturing into uncharted territory every day and much of the extraordinary phenomena are happening right in our own cosmic backyard. Episode 6 Ten Ways to Destroy the Earth - Don't try this at home! In this episode, our experts cook up ten ways you could destroy the earth, including: swallowing it with a microscopic black hole; blowing it up with anti-matter; hurling it into the Sun, and switching off gravity. This is a fun way to explore the dangerous physics of the Universe and the properties of the planet we call home ...

Professor David Reynolds takes a fresh look at the extraordinary events and personalities that brought about the armistice of 1918 venturing beyond the familiar British account of Remembrance Day to unravel how the Germans, plunged to total defeat in just a few months at the end of the war. In a journey that takes him through command centres and battlefields, he uncovers a story of wounded egos, mental illness and political brinkmanship as statesmen and generals haggled over the terms of peace, while soldiers fought on with sustained brutality. Reynolds argues that the bitter endgame of the "war to end all wars" tragically sowed the seeds of even more appalling conflict to come ...

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial crises we can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 4 Risky Business - Life is a risky business which is why people take out insurance. But faced with an unexpected disaster, the state has to step in. Professor Ferguson travels to post Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market can't provide some of the adequate protection against catastrophe. His quest for an answer takes him to the origins of modern insurance in the early 19th century and to the birth of the welfare state in post ...

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial crises we can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 5 Safe As Houses - It sounded so simple, give state owned assets to the people. After all, what better foundation for a property owning democracy than a campaign of privatisation encompassing housing? An economic theory says that markets can't function without mortgages, because it's only by borrowing against their assets that entrepreneurs can get their businesses off the ground. But what if mortgages are bundled together and sold off to the highest bidder? ...

Presented by Rod Liddle explores the life and times of the visionaries who fought a powerful and violent church establishment to publish the Bible in English. Their vocation, tenacity and sacrifice left a lasting impression on the language and literature in the centuries that followed. The inflections, cadences and familiar phrases of the first English Bible set the foundations for the way English has been spoken and written in the five centuries that followed its first publication. Perhaps its most important legacy, though, is the Protestant notion put by Jefferson God hath created the mind free. This underpinned the separation of church and state, the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression and the right to fight for freedom of choice, freedom of conscience and freedom of speech ...

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial crises we can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 3 Blowing Bubbles - Why do stock markets produce bubbles and busts? Professor Ferguson goes back to the origins of the joint stock company in Amsterdam and Paris. He draws telling parallels between the current stock market crash and the 18th century Mississippi Bubble of Scottish financier John Law and the 2001 Enron bankruptcy. He shows why humans have a herd instinct when it comes to investment, and why no one can accurately predict when the bulls might stampede ...

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial crises we can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 6 Chimerica - Niall Ferguson investigates the globalisation of the Western economy and the uncertain balance between the important component countries of China and the US. In examining the last time globalisation took hold, before World War One, he finds a notable reversal, namely that today money is pouring into the English speaking economies from the developing world, rather than out ...

MonsterQuest uses the latest high tech equipment to take a scientific look at legendary creatures around the world creatures eyewitnesses claim to see to this day. Each episode will examine all the evidence available, from pictures and video to hair and bones, as well as the eyewitness accounts themselves. Believers, skeptics and scientists will weigh in, but what will the evidence reveal? Episode 9 Sierra Sasquatch - Ancient petroglyphs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains depict footprints left by frightening packs of hairy man like beasts. Now, MonsterQuest heads to the heart of California where witnesses are encountering aggressively territorial packs of Sasquatch. The team will investigate groups of large footprints found here and analyze compelling new video which could be that of the beast ...

Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson argues that in the last century there were not in fact two World Wars and a Cold War but a single Hundred Years' War. It was not nationalism that powered the conflicts of the century, but empires. It was not ideologies of class or the advent of socialism driving the century, but race. Ultimately, ethnic conflict underpinned 20th century violence. Finally, it was not the west that triumphed as the century progressed, in fact, power slowly and steadily migrated towards the new empires of the East. Episode 6 The Descent of the West - Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson concludes the series by challenging the received wisdom that the fall of the Berlin Wall represented ultimate triumph for Western values, pointing to racial conflict in the last decades of the 20th century. He also considers the possibility of a further global war in the future ...

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial criseswe can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 1 Dreams of Avarice - From Shylock's pound of flesh to the loan sharks of Glasgow, from the promises to pay on Babylonian clay tablets to the Medici banking system. Professor Ferguson explains the origins of credit and debt and why credit networks are indispensable to any civilization ...

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial criseswe can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 2 Human Bondage - How did finance become the realm of the masters of the universe? Through the rise of the bond market in Renaissance Italy. With the advent of bonds, war finance was transformed and spread to north west Europe and across the Atlantic. It was the bond market that made the Rothschilds the richest and most powerful family of the 19th century ...

Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson argues that in the last century there were not in fact two World Wars and a Cold War but a single Hundred Years' War. It was not nationalism that powered the conflicts of the century, but empires. It was not ideologies of class or the advent of socialism driving the century, but race. Ultimately, ethnic conflict underpinned 20th century violence. Finally, it was not the west that triumphed as the century progressed, in fact, power slowly and steadily migrated towards the new empires of the East Episode 4 A Tainted Triumph - The last years of World War Two, considering the terrible ethical compromises the Allied nations were forced to make to defeat their German and Japanese enemies, and the long term consequences for the victors ...