Atom: The Illusion of Reality

Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the greatest scientific discovery ever - that everything is made of atoms. He explores how studying the atom forced us to rethink the nature of reality itself, encountering ideas that seem like they are from science fiction but in fact are a central part of modern science. He discovers that there might be parallel universes in which different versions of us exist and finds out that empty space is not empty at all, but seething with activity. The world we think we know - the solid, reassuring world of our senses - turns out to be a tiny sliver of an infinitely weirder and more wonderful universe than we had ever conceived in our wildest fantasies.

Atom: The Clash of the Titans
Atom: The Key to the Cosmos

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Paul Dirac
Richard Feynman

Atom: The Key to the Cosmos

Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the greatest scientific discovery ever - that everything is made of atoms. He shows how, in our quest to understand the tiny atom, we unravelled the mystery of how the universe was created. It's a story with dramatic twists and turns, taking in world-changing discoveries like radioactivity, the atom bomb and the big bang. All this forms part of an epic narrative in which the greatest brains of the 20th century competed to answer the biggest questions of all - why are we here and how were we made?

Atom: The Clash of the Titans
Atom: The Illusion of Reality

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Chemistry: A Volatile History
Einstein's Big Idea

Atom: The Clash of the Titans

Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the greatest scientific discovery ever - that everything is made of atoms. As scientists delved deep into the atom, into the very heart of matter, they unravelled nature's most shocking secrets. They had to abandon everything they believed in and create a whole new science, which today underpins the whole of physics, chemistry, biology and maybe even life itself. The series tells a story of geniuses like Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg who were driven by their thirst for knowledge and glory. It is a story of false starts and conflicts, ambition and revelation, a story which leads us through some of the most exciting and exhilarating ideas ever conceived by the human race.

Atom: The Key to the Cosmos
Atom: The Illusion of Reality

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Atom
Chemistry: A Volatile History

Order and Disorder (BBC Horizon)

Order and Disorder is a two-part BBC documentary presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili, investigating the important concepts of energy and information. In the first part, Professor Jim Al-Khalili discovers the intriguing story of how we discovered the rules that drive the universe. Energy is vital to us all, but what exactly is energy? In attempting to answer this question Jim investigates a strange set of laws that link together everything from engines to humans to stars. It turns out that energy, so critical to daily existence, actually helps us make sense of the entire universe.

In the second part, Jim Al-Khalili investigates one of the most important concepts in the world today - information. He discovers how we harnessed the power of symbols, everything from the first alphabet to the electric telegraph through to the modern digital age. But on this journey he learns that information isn't just about human communication, it's woven very profoundly into the fabric of reality.

1. Energy

Energy is vital to us all, but what exactly is energy? In attempting to answer this question Jim investigates a strange set of laws that link together everything from engines to humans to stars.

2. Information

Professor Jim Al-Khalili learns that information isn't just about human communication, it's woven very profoundly into the fabric of reality.

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Atom
Everything and Nothing

The Hunt for the Higgs (BBC Horizon)

The Hunt for the Higgs is a BBC Horizon documentary presented by Jim Al-Khalili, revealing how CERN is searching for the Higgs particle and why it is so significant. The film goes behind the scenes at CERN to follow one of the most epic and expensive scientific quests of all time: the search for the Higgs particle, believed to give mass to everything in our universe. However, the hunt for Higgs is part of a much grander search for how the universe works. It promises to help answer questions like why we exist and is a vital part of a Grand Unified Theory of nature. At the heart of the pursuit of the elusive particle is the same feature that makes snowflakes beautiful and human faces attractive: the simple and enchanting idea of symmetry.

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The Secret Life of Chaos

This is a BBC documentary presented by Jim Al-Khalili, taking a look at a fascinating and hidden side to chaos. With some of examples to explain how nature transforms simplicity into complexity, it uncovers the science behind much of beauty and structure in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics. Amazingly, it turns out that the mathematics of chaos can explain how and why the universe creates exquisite order and pattern.

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Fractals: The Colors of Infinity
Alan Turing

Everything and Nothing by Jim Al-Khalili

Everything and Nothing is a two-part BBC documentary presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili, dealing with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing? In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.

1. Everything

The first part, Everything, sees Professor Al-Khalili set out to discover what the universe might actually look like. The journey takes him from the distant past to the boundaries of the known universe. Along the way he charts the remarkable stories of the men and women who discovered the truth about the cosmos and investigates how our understanding of space has been shaped by both mathematics and astronomy.

2. Nothing

The second part, Nothing, explores science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. Jim sets out to answer one very simple question - what is nothing? His journey ends with perhaps the most profound insight about reality that humanity has ever made. Everything came from nothing. The quantum world of the super-small shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim can prove it.

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Order and Disorder