Episodes
| Series | Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20081226 | 20091230 (R4) | Adam Hart-Davis explores the history of the technology of Christmas, with balloons, stars and a stockingful of toys. He travels to the town of Lauscha in Germany, where glass baubles are still blown by hand, a tradition that goes back to the mid-1830s. Adam finds a dizzying description of the first Christmas tree lit by electric light bulbs, looks at X-rays of teddy bear skeletons and pulls a cracker in the name of scientific investigation. Adam Hart-Davis explores the history of the technology of Christmas. | |||
| 03 | 01 | 1965 | 20070829 | Huge advances in military technology would later fuel the race to the moon. | |
| 03 | 02 | 1866 | 20070905 | 20090519 (R4) | Adam Hart-Davis explores spectacular years in the history of science. Charles Darwin is an international celebrity following the publication of On the Origin of Species. Growing peas in a monastic garden a thousand miles away, however, Austrian priest Gregor Mendel holds the key to the process of heredity, the missing link in Darwin's theory. Charles Darwin is an international celebrity, but Gregor Mendel holds the key to heredity. |
| 03 | 03 | 1628 | 20070912 | Royal Physician William Harvey demonstrates that blood circulates around the body. | |
| 03 | 04 LAST | 1905 | 20070919 | 20090602 (R4) | Albert Einstein develops a theory of relativity with some help from his shaving mirror. |
| 04 | 01 | 1650: Coffee, Cosmology And The Civil War | 20080711 | 20091118 (R4) | Adam Hart-Davis explores spectacular years in the history of science. The first coffeehouse opens in Oxford and signals the beginning of a new age of reason. A coffee-powered network of scientists, theologians, politicians and traders swap ideas and information over a steaming dish of coffee, and the true nature of gravity is revealed after a coffeehouse argument. |
| 04 | 02 | 1923, Traffic Lights And Frozen Food | 20080718 | 20090609 (R4) | The story of the man who made us all stop for a moment of peace at traffic lights. |
| 04 | 03 | 1893 | 20080725 | 20091125 (R4) | Adam Hart-Davis explores spectacular years in the history of science. Henry Ford builds his first car, Karl Benz constructs his first four-wheeler and Gottlieb Daimler succeeds in putting his new engines in horseless carriages. The internal combustion engine, hailed as the answer to London's pollution problem, is born. The internal combustion engine, hailed as the answer to pollution in London, is born. |
| 04 | 04 LAST | 1879 | 20080801 | 20090526 (R4) | The light bulb and the first moving pictures appeared. |