What on Earth is Wrong with Gravity?

Particle physicist Brian Cox wants to know why the Universe is built the way it is. He believes the answers lie in the force of gravity. But Newton thought gravity was powered by God, and even Einstein failed to completely solve it. Heading out with his film crew on a road trip across the USA, Brian fires lasers at the moon in Texas, goes mad in the desert in Arizona, encounters the bending of space and time at a maximum security military base, tries to detect ripples in our reality in the swamps of Louisiana and searches for hidden dimensions just outside Chicago.

Related Links
The Universe (Season 2): Gravity
Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes Our Lives

Beautiful Equations (BBC documentary)

Artist and writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equations. He asks top scientists to help him understand five of the most famous equations in science, talks to Stephen Hawking about his equation for black holes and comes face to face with a particle of anti-matter. Along the way he discovers why Newton was right about those falling apples and how to make sense of E=mc2. As he gets to grips with these equations he wonders whether the concept of artistic beauty has any relevance to the world of physics.

Related Links:
The Code (BBC Documentary)
The Beauty of Diagrams

The Birth of the Calculus

This is a documentary presented by Jeremy Gray, about the birth of the calculus. Two men independently discovered and formulated methods for the Calculus, Newton in England and Leibniz in Paris. Jeremy Gray visits first Cambridge, to trace Newtons lines of thought through his notebooks, then Hanover, where Leibniz’s original notes are stored to trace his very different approach to the same problem.

Related Links
The Story of Maths

Newton's Dark Secrets

Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist of his day, perhaps of all time. But while Isaac Newton was busy discovering the universal law of gravitation, he was also searching out hidden meanings in the Bible and pursuing the covert art of alchemy. This film explores the strange and complex mind of Isaac Newton. Using docudrama scenes, it recreates the unique climate of late 17th-century England, where a newfound fascination with science and mathematics coexisted with extreme views on religious doctrine. Newton shared both obsessions. This film also covers Newton's most important discoveries in mathematics, physics, and optics. And it follows a detailed recreation of one of Newton's little-known alchemical experiments, assembled by Bill Newman, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, who spent years deciphering Newton's secret coded recipes. (from pbs.org)

Related Links
Books and Films - Isaac Newton