Horizon (1964)
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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0x01 The Case of the Ancient Astronauts
25 November, 1977 9:00 pm
In this special episode, Horizon reports on Erich von Däniken and his theories about astronauts visiting Earth long ago.
0x02 The Mind's Eye
28 January, 1980 9:00 pm
This special episode of Horizon shows the latest advances in research into how the visual eyesight system of humans and animals work.
0x03 25 Years in Space
25 December, 1982 9:00 pm
This Horizon special episode recalls the highlights of the past 25 years of the space age.
0x04 Biology at War: The Mystery of Yellow Rain
15 May, 1984 9:00 pm
In the first part of this special two-part series, Horizon reports on the yellow rain problem in South-east Asia.
0x05 Beyond the Moon
21 July, 1984 9:00 pm
In this special episode, Horizon brings you a report on space exploration and exploitation. The first half of this episode looks back at the Apollo 11 moon landing, and second the second half looks at the future plans of the space program.
0x06 Biology at War: A Plague in the Wind
29 October, 1984 9:00 pm
This is the second part, of a two-part special series. In this episode, Horizon looks at the history of germ warfare and the research still continuing today in military labs under deceptive name of defensive biology.
0x07 Twenty-First Birthday
20 May, 1985 9:00 pm
Horizon celebrates twenty one years of work, achievement, and awards with a birthday compilation of highlights from past episodes.
0x08 Halley's Comet - The Apparition
25 November, 1985 9:00 pm
This report by Horizon looks into how the apparitions of Halley's comet came to be predicted so accurately.
0x10 The Diary of Discovery
28 September, 1988 9:00 pm
This Horizon special follows the 20 months preparation of the five astronauts who are to man the American space shuttle Discovery launching on the 29th of September in 1988. This is the first shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster in January 1986.
0x11 Making an Honest Fiver
06 June, 1990 9:00 pm
This Horizon special explores the production and processes behind the scenes of the new five pound note to be launched on the 7the June, 1990, in Britain. It considers the design and production of money and the intricate techniques developed to prevent forgeries.
0x12 Red Star in Orbit: The Invisible Spaceman
07 December, 1990 9:00 pm
This Horizon special episode is part one of a three part series on the projects, cosmonauts, and engineers involved in the Soviet Union space program.
0x13 Red Star in Orbit: The Dark Side of the Moon
14 December, 1990 9:00 pm
This Horizon special episode is part two of a three part series on the projects, cosmonauts, and engineers involved in the Soviet Union space program.
0x14 Red Star in Orbit: The Mission
21 December, 1990 9:00 pm
This Horizon special episode is the last part of a three part series on the projects, cosmonauts, and engineers involved in the Soviet Union space program. In this episode, two Soviet cosmonauts risk their lives earlier this year in a dangerous space walk to try and repair their stricken craft.
0x15 A Close Encounter of the Second Kind
10 July, 1992 9:00 pm
This Horizon special program explores what happened when the "Giotto" explorer spacecraft passed within 100 kilometres of Halley's Comet.
0x16 Hide and Seek in Iraq
23 August, 1992 9:00 pm
This documentary by Horizon reveals the disturbing discoveries made in over 40 inspections looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
0x17 The Truth About Sex
12 October, 1992 9:00 pm
This report by Horizon brings you the results of a landmark survey about sex.
0x18 Assault on the Male
31 October, 1993 9:00 pm
This Horizon special looks at the mysterious changes in wildlife that has been reported in the USA and that man's reproduction may also be adversely effected.
0x19 30th Anniversary - The Far Side
23 May, 1994 9:00 pm
Horizon celebrates its 30th birthday by checking on some of the scientific predictions of last three decades.
0x20 Twice Born
14 February, 1995 9:00 pm
In this special episode, Horizon examines the use of foetal surgery for life saving operations.
0x21 Einstein: The Miracle Year
17 March, 1996 9:00 pm
First part of a two-part drama looking at the work and life of Albert Einstein. Mixes archival material with dramatised sequences. Looks at his turbulent private life and the six month period in which he worked out the size of atoms, the quantum theory of light and invented the Special Theory of Relativity.
0x22 Einstein: Fame
18 March, 1996 9:00 pm
This is the second part of a two-part Horizon series on Albert Einstein looking at Einstein's life and work. This program deals with the break up of his first marriage, his second marriage to his cousin, and the completion of the General Theory of Relativity which replaced Newton's view on gravity.
0x23 BSE: The Invisible Enemy
17 November, 1996 9:00 pm
First part of a two-part investigation into BSE. Looks into the scientific confusion and official bungling surrounding the problem, which allowed BSE to spread into the human population. Includes an interview with Sir Richard Southwood, Chairman of the first Government advisory committee, who reconsiders evidence they first weighed up in 1988.
0x24 BSE: The Human Experiment
18 November, 1996 9:00 pm
This is part two of a two-part Horizon series on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as "mad cow" disease, and how it is transmitted to humans, becoming CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob disease), how many people are at risk, and what the chances are of finding a cure.
0x25 Ice Mummies: The Ice Maiden
30 January, 1997 9:00 pm
Follows archeologist Natalya Polosmok as she journeys to the Altay Mountains in southern Siberia to search for traces of an ancient people known as the Pazyryk.
* Polosmok and her team discover and unearth a wooden tomb surrounded by the frozen remains of six horses, uncovering a 2,400-year-old woman dubbed the Siberian Ice Maiden.
* The Ice Maiden is buried alone, lying as if asleep, in a wood coffin with a headdress and a mirror. An afterlife meal, a yak horn vessel and a wooden table are also found outside the coffin. Archeologists record the Ice Maiden's height, and discover a hole in her skull and peat packed in her body.
*They use radiocarbon dating, tree-ring chronology and biological testing to determine the age of the remains and time of death.
*The body is excavated and taken to Moscow for preservation and facial reconstruction. Another mummy, and other skeletons, are discovered elsewhere.
*The program concludes by raising the question of wh
0x26 Ice Mummies: A Life in Ice
06 February, 1997 9:00 pm
In this second part of the Ice Mummies trilogy, attention turns to Ötzi, the Neolithic man plucked with an ice pick and some not inconsiderable brute force from an Alpine glacier. Once again, as with the Ice Maiden, an impressive set of relationships are on display in the vicinity of the leathery character and his bedraggled belongings. By far the most important man in Ötzi's life is Konrad Spindler, whose chance identification of the age of the mummy upon its discovery catapulted him to stardom and a life of analysis and scientific monitoring. Spindler is fiercely defensive of Ötzi, like Frankenstein and his monster, although the relationship is much less emotional than Natalia and her Ice Maiden.
A bewildering array of more minor characters emerge during the course of the film, my particular favourite being a yodeling mountain dweller, included as a representation of how Ötzi has effected the local population. All varieties of archaeological life appear in this film, from Professo
0x27 Ice Mummies: Frozen in Heaven
13 February, 1997 9:00 pm
This is the bizarre and fascinating story of the remains of Inca culture, frozen for posterity high in the mountains of the Andes. Evidence has emerged of sacrifice to the mountain gods, whose existence dominated the civilization over 500 years ago. The film traces the frozen bodies of children uncovered by archaeologists in South America, and follows an archaeological expedition to a high-altitude sacred site in search of ritual remains and another body. How did they come to be there? Why did they go to their deaths willingly? What was the religious framework that dictated their sacrifice to fierce gods?
0x28 Antarctica: The Ice Lives
30 October, 1997 9:00 pm
This is part one of a three-part Horizon special about the scientists and others who became explorers in the earth's final frontier, Antarctica.
0x29 Antarctica: The Ice Forms
06 November, 1997 9:00 pm
This is part two of a three-part Horizon special about the scientists and others who became explorers in the earth's final frontier, Antarctica.
0x30 Antarctica: The Ice Melts
13 November, 1997 9:00 pm
This is part three of a three-part Horizon special about the scientists and others who became explorers in the earth's final frontier, Antarctica.
0x31 Crash
08 January, 1998 9:00 pm
This programme traces the lessons learned from a century of road fatalities. How have car makers learnt to predict the injuries their designs will inflict, and how have doctors learnt to patch up the damage to the frail human body?
0x32 Longitude
04 January, 1999 9:00 pm
In this documentary special, Horizon explores how to solve the problem of sailors being unable to pin-point their exact east-west position on the globe.
0x33 Fat Files: Born to Be Fat
07 January, 1999 9:00 pm
Horizon presents a three-part series focusing on weight-gain, dieting, and eating disorders. In this episode, there is scientific proof that we are not always in control of our appetites and weight, and introduces the hormone called Leptin.
0x34 Fat Files: Fixing Fat
14 January, 1999 9:00 pm
Horizon presents a three-part series focusing on weight-gain, dieting, and eating disorders. In this episode, Horizon examines the shift away from invasive dieting methods to more natural weight-loss strategies, based on products already present in the food we eat.
0x35 Fat Files: Living on Air
21 January, 1999 9:00 pm
Horizon presents a three-part series focusing on weight-gain, dieting, and eating disorders. In this episode, Horizon looks at the eating disorders called Anorexia and Bulimia.
0x36 Atlantis Uncovered
28 October, 1999 9:00 pm
This is part one of a two-part special Horizon series about Atlantis. In this episode, Horizon explores the mystery of whether Atlantis really did exist. Was there really, about 12,000 years ago, a fabulous city whose people had already evolved into a sophisticated civilization with culture and society, writing, astronomy, religion, monument-building, while everyone else was still living in the Stone Age?
0x37 Atlantis Reborn
04 November, 1999 9:00 pm
This is part two of a two-part special Horizon series about Atlantis. In this episode, Horizon puts Graham Hancock's controversial theories about the past to the test, dissecting his evidence for a lost civilization.
0x38 Life and Death in the 21st Century: Living Forever
04 January, 2000 9:00 pm
Will we find the magic formula that allows us to live forever in the 21st Century?
0x39 Life and Death in the 21st Century: Future Plagues
05 January, 2000 9:00 pm
Ancient diseases we thought we had defeated are returning to haunt us, and plagues of new viruses and bacteria are now emerging.
0x40 Life and Death in the 21st Century: Designer Babies
06 January, 2000 9:00 pm
Will we ever be able to hand-pick genes to manufacture our own tailor-made baby?
0x41 Life on Mars
11 January, 2001 9:00 pm
If there's life on Mars, it would be one of the most important discoveries of all time. It would mean life on Earth was not some special unique event - it would mean there's likely to be life throughout the Universe.
In the first of two special programmes on Mars, Horizon explores how the search for Martians is now hotting up, and why many scientists are becoming more and more convinced that life may have arisen on Mars, and that there may even be something living there now.
Today, Mars is a frozen desert - the average temperature is -70ºC. But long ago Mars was very different. The first clues came from Mariner 9, which sent back fuzzy images of the surface of Mars, revealing volcanoes, canyons and meandering valleys that looked like ancient rivers. Rivers form from rain water run-off, rain comes from clouds, and clouds mean an atmosphere. If there had been rivers on Mars, it meant the planet had once been warm and wet, like the Earth - the perfect conditions for life to evolve.
0x42 Destination Mars special
18 January, 2001 9:00 pm
Tantalising new evidence has emerged that life could exist on Mars. But to find out for sure humans will have to journey to this dry, frozen planet.
0x43 What Sank the Kursk?
08 August, 2001 9:00 pm
In August 2000, the Russian submarine, the Kursk, sank with the loss of 118 lives. It was a tragedy which shocked the world. But to many the tragedy remains incomprehensible, for the Kursk had been built to be unsinkable. How could this submarine have foundered?
For a week after the tragedy the world watched in horror, as divers struggled to reach the crew trapped inside the Kursk. But the rescue efforts were in vain - all the sailors on board had perished. One overriding question dominated the aftermath of the disaster: what had caused the submarine to sink? As theories and counter-theories have multiplied, this mystery has been mired in confusion and acrimony.
The Russians eventually claimed an American spy submarine had collided with the Kursk, causing her to sink - a claim the Americans flatly deny. But the Russian suspicions were based on logic. During the naval exercises there had indeed been two American submarines out in the Barents Sea, spying on the Russian weaponry and
0x44 First Olympian
23 July, 2004 9:00 pm
In this documentary, Horizon reports on a skeleton was found 50 years ago in Southern Italy. The bone structure suggests the owner was an ancient athlete.
0x45 Everest: Doctors in the Death Zone (1)
23 September, 2007 9:00 pm
This two-part special, Horizon documentary follows an extraordinary team of climbing doctors on an expedition like no other to make scientific history and experience the ultimate in mountaineering. From their tented laboratories pitched beside ice falls in minus 25-degree temperatures, this team of doctors are the guinea pigs, experimenting on themselves.
In this hostile environment they are putting their own lives at risk in an attempt to rewrite our understanding of the human body and revolutionise the treatment of patients in intensive care. But near the summit of Everest they quickly realise that in the death zone the greatest challenge is just staying alive.
0x46 Everest: Doctors in the Death Zone (2)
30 September, 2007 9:00 pm
The extraordinary expedition of climbing doctors reaches a tense conclusion as Horizon follows Dr Mike Grocott and his team as they attempt to reach the summit of Everest and measure the amount of oxygen in their blood.
The doctors findings could rewrite our understanding of the human body and help save the lives of critically ill patients in intensive care. Their greatest goal is to discover a genetic link that allows some to survive low oxygen when others die. But to do this they must go to the extreme.
Standing 8850m in the sky, Everest is in the 'death zone' and by climbing into this hostile environment they will be putting their own lives on the line.
0x47 The Horizon Guide to Pandemic
09 August, 2009 9:00 pm
In the wake of the swine flu outbreak, virologist Dr Mike Leahy goes back over 50 years of BBC archives to explore the history of pandemics: waves of infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites.
Inspired primarily by the Horizon back catalogue, he works his way through the diseases that have been tackled head-on through the 20th Century: polio, malaria, smallpox, AIDS, and up to the present day with SARS and the H5N1 bird-flu virus.
Each pandemic episode tells us something about the world and our place within it. In his trip through the ages and the archives, Dr Leahy charts science's ongoing battle with nature and questions which one is winning. He makes a reasonable fist of the exercise, but is somewhat up against it as his source material can be patchy - first triumphant about man's successes and then defeatist when the previous triumph didn't work out quite as planned, etc.
0x48 Mars: A Horizon Guide
15 November, 2009 9:00 pm
The intriguing possibility of life on Mars has fuelled man's quest to visit the Red Planet. Drawing on 45 years of Horizon archive, space expert Dr Kevin Fong presents a documentary on Earth's near neighbour.
Man's extraordinary attempts to reach Mars have pushed technological boundaries past their limit and raised the tantalising prospect of establishing human colonies beyond our own planet.
While the moon lies 240,000 miles away, Mars is at a distance of 50 million miles. Reaching the moon takes three days, but to land on Mars would take nearly eight months, and only two thirds of the missions to Mars have made it. The BBC has been there to analyse the highs and lows - including the ill-fated British attempt, the Beagle.
Horizon has explored how scientists believe the only way to truly understand Mars is to send people there. If and when we do, it will be the most challenging trip humanity has ever undertaken.
0x50 Lost Horizons: The Big Bang
04 September, 2008 9:00 pm
Professor Jim Al Khalili delves into over 50 years of the BBC science archive to tell the story behind the emergence of one of the greatest theories of modern science, the Big Bang.
The remarkable idea that our universe simply began from nothing has not always been accepted with the conviction it is today and, from fiercely disputed leftfield beginnings, took the best part of the 20th century to emerge as the triumphant explanation of how the universe began. Using curious horn-shaped antennas, U-2 spy planes, satellites and particle accelerators, scientists have slowly pieced together the cosmological jigsaw, and this documentary charts the overwhelming evidence for a universe created by a Big Bang.
0x51 The Big Bang Machine
04 September, 2008 9:00 pm
The Large Hadron Collider, constructed in tunnels below Geneva, is the world's largest particle accelerator. Scientists using the LHC will recreate conditions less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.
0x52 Diet: A Horizon Guide
07 January, 2010 9:00 pm
Dr Susan Jebb takes a look through nearly fifty years of amazing BBC archive of mankind's relationship with what we eat, charting the shift from the malnutrition of the past to today's obesity epidemic.
This is the story of our attempt to control nature through the wholesale industrialisation of food production in our search for enough to eat, and the consequences of that massive shift in our diet on the shape of our bodies, and the diseases that kill us.
From the BBC's original eccentric scientist Magnus Pyke comparing the virtues of artificial additives to a Beethoven sonata, to the tragic side effects of diet pills, Horizon and the BBC have covered it all.
On her journey through the decades, Dr Jebb explores how scientists have played a crucial role both in transforming the way our food is produced, but also in attempting to understand the biological mechanisms that determine why it is that some of us have become so large.
0x53 The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion
17 September, 2010 9:00 pm
As the Pope ends his visit to Britain, historian Dr Thomas Dixon delves into the BBC's archive to explore the troubled relationship between religion and science. From the creationists of America to the physicists of the Large Hadron Collider, he traces the expansion of scientific knowledge and asks whether there is still room for God in the modern world.
0x54 What Makes Us Clever? A Horizon Guide to Intelligence
06 January, 2011 9:00 pm
Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how our understanding of intelligence has transformed over the last century. From early caveman thinkers to computers doing the thinking for us, he discovers the best ways of testing how clever we are - and enhancing it.
0x55 Japan Earthquake: A Horizon Special
27 March, 2011 9:00 pm
Professor Iain Stewart examines the powerful geological forces that unleashed the devastating Japanese earthquake, and explores how the release of this power of the planet brought Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown.
He follows moment by moment how the earthquake was generated under the Pacific Ocean, travelled to the Japanese mainland, and the rare conditions that unleashed a tsunami.
He also reveals the latest science behind earthquakes - from why we can't predict them, to what causes some of them to reach such power.
Iain shows why our civilisation has developed such a dangerous relationship with earthquakes, and why millions of us continue to live in earthquake zones across the world.
0x56 The Horizon Guide to Space Shuttles
10 April, 2011 9:00 pm
In 2011, after more than 30 years of service, America's space shuttle took to the skies for the last time. Its story has been characterised by incredible triumphs, but blighted by devastating tragedies - and the BBC and Horizon have chronicled every step of its career. This unique and poignant Horizon Guide brings together coverage from three decades of programmes to present a biography of the shuttle and to ask what its legacy will be. Will it be remembered as an impressive chapter in human space exploration, or as a fatally flawed white elephant?
0x57 The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon
12 May, 2011 9:00 pm
Our understanding of the world around us is better now than ever before. But are we any closer to knowing how its all going to end?
Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how scientists have tried to predict an impending apocalypse - from natural disaster to killer disease to asteroid impact - and to ask: when Armageddon arrives, will science be able to save us?
0x58 40 Years On The Moon
09 July, 2009 9:00 pm
Professor Brian Cox takes a look through nearly 50 years of BBC archive at the story of man's relationship with the moon.
From the BBC's space fanatic James Burke testing out the latest Nasa equipment to 1960s interviews about the bacon-flavoured crystals that astronauts can survive on in space, to the iconic images of man's first steps on the moon and the dramatic story of Apollo 13, Horizon and the BBC have covered it all.
But since President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s was reached, no-one has succeeded in reigniting the public's enthusiasm for space travel and lunar voyages. Why?
On his journey through the ages, Professor Cox explores the role that international competition played in getting man to the moon and asks if, with America no longer the world's only superpower, we are at the dawn of a bright new space age.
0x59 Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids
11 August, 2011 9:00 pm
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus delves into the Horizon archive to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. From lessons in motherly love to tough discipline to bribery tactics, she asks what's the best approach when it comes to bringing up children.
Laverne also explores how extreme behaviour can sometimes be explained by underlying neurological problems and discovers whether children learn best in a more child-centred environment.
0x60 Extinct: A Horizon Guide to Dinosaurs
21 September, 2011 9:00 pm
Dallas Campbell delves in to the Horizon archive to discover how our ideas about dinosaurs have changed over the past 40 years. From realising that lumbering swamp dwellers were really agile warm blooded killers, astonishing new finds, controversial theories and breakthrough technology have enabled scientists to rethink how they lived and solve the mystery of their disappearance. And they can even reveal whether dinosaurs might still be with us today.
0x61 The Hunt for Higgs: A Horizon Special
09 January, 2012 9:00 pm
Horizon 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.
0x62 Woof! A Horizon Guide to Dogs
01 March, 2012 9:00 pm
Dallas Campbell looks back through the Horizon archives to find out what science can tell us about our best friend the dog, and whether new thinking should change the way we treat them. From investigating the domestic dog's wild wolf origins to discovering the remarkable impact that humans have had on canine evolution, Dallas explores why our bond with dogs is so strong and how we can best use that to manage them.
0x64 Stuff: A Horizon Guide to Materials
19 April, 2012 9:00 pm
Engineer Jem Stansfield looks back through the Horizon archives to find out how scientists have come to understand and manipulate the materials that built the modern world. Whether it is uncovering new materials or finding fresh uses for those man has known about for centuries, each breakthrough offers a tantalising glimpse of the holy grail of materials science - a substance that is cheap to produce and has the potential to change the world.
Jem explores how a series of extraordinary advances has done just that - from superconductors to the silicon revolution.
0x66 Blink: A Horizon Guide to the Senses
11 July, 2012 9:00 pm
Touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste - our senses link us to the outside world. Dr Kevin Fong looks back through 40 years of Horizon archives to find out what science has taught us about our tools of perception - why babies use touch more than any other sense, why our eyes are so easily tricked and how pioneering technology is edging closer to the dream of replacing our human senses if they fail.
0x70 Tomorrow's World
11 April, 2013 9:00 pm
Liz Bonnin delves in to the world of invention, revealing the people and technologies set to transform all our lives. She examines the conditions that are promising to make the 21st century a golden age of innovation and meets some of the world's foremost visionaries, mavericks and dreamers.
From the entrepreneurs that are driving a new space race, to the Nobel Prize wining scientist leading a nanotech revolution, this is a tour of the people and ideas delivering the world of tomorrow, today.
0x71 The Truth About Meteors
03 March, 2013 9:00 pm
On a bright, cold morning on 15th February 2013, a meteorite ripped across the skies above the Ural mountains in Russia, distintegrating into three pieces and exploding with the force of 20 Hiroshimas. It was a stark reminder that the Earth's journey through space is fraught with danger. A day later, another much larger 143,000-tonne asteroid passed within just 17,000 miles of the Earth.
Presented by Professor Iain Stewart, this film explores what meteorites and asteroids are, where they come from, the danger they pose and the role they have played in Earth's history.
0x72 Mend Me: A Horizon Guide to Transplants
27 March, 2013 9:00 pm
Transplant surgery has now reached incredible heights, from achieving full face transplants to growing organs in the lab. This Horizon Guide looks back at the extraordinary odds doctors and patients have had to overcome to achieve these amazing breakthroughs.
What we now take for granted has been a hard won struggle, both for the patients who were willing to gamble their lives and the doctors who faced ethical and medical dilemmas in the name of progress. Michael Mosley looks through the Horizon archive, identifying the key turning points for transplant surgery to explore how far science can go in its bid to prolong life.
0x73 Computers Don't Bite, Inside the Internet
17 May, 1997 9:00 pm
0x74 Inside the Internet
10 June, 2000 9:00 pm
0x75 Darwin: The Legacy
29 March, 1998 9:00 pm
0x77 Molecules With Sunglasses (Update)
09 December, 1996 9:00 pm
An update on the earlier 1992 episode, and the continuing story of the Carbon 60 molecule.
0x80 Impact! A Horizon Guide to Plane Crashes
14 October, 2013 9:00 pm
It's a macabre paradox, but almost every advance in aviation safety has been driven by a crash. After every crash, investigators determine its cause and scientists make every effort to ensure the same mistakes never happen again. Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archives to chart the deadly disasters that have helped make air travel today the safest it has ever been.
0x81 Impact! A Horizon Guide to Car Crashes
21 October, 2013 9:00 pm
In the 1950s up to 8,000 people died every year on the roads in this country - a truly horrific figure. Thankfully it has now fallen to around 2,000 a year - still a terrible toll, but a vast improvement, particularly given the increase in cars on the road.
Dallas Campbell looks back over decades of Horizon and BBC archive to chart the key scientific breakthroughs that have transformed road safety and saved millions of lives. However, it hasn't all been about innovative engineering and groundbreaking medical discoveries - scientists have also had to act as campaigners, persuading car manufacturers to install their life saving devices and urging the public to use them.
0x82 Comet of the Century: A Horizon Special
23 November, 2013 9:00 pm
Comet ISON could well be the brightest and most spectacular comet for a generation. It should appear above the eastern horizon from December 2013 as a glorious streak across the sky. ISON has been travelling towards the sun for ten thousand years and will make only one orbit through its corona before disappearing off into the outer solar system.
But as well as providing a great spectacle, ISON's tail of vapourised gas and water, hundreds of millions of kilometres long, will give insights into some of the greatest mysteries of science; it will help explain the origins of the solar system, whether earth's water was delivered on comets and even whether we are alone in the universe.
0x83 Cat Watch 2014 - A Cat's Eye View
07 October, 2014 9:00 pm
Playful pets, fearsome fighters or deadly hunters? Millions of us have cats in our homes, yet we know very little about them. In this series, Liz Bonnin joins forces with some of the world's top cat experts to conduct a groundbreaking scientific study. With GPS trackers and cat cameras, we follow 100 cats in three very different environments to find out what they get up to when they leave the cat flap.
In the first programme we discover how our cats see, hear and smell the world with the senses of their wild ancestors, and why this could be making life difficult for them in the modern world.
0x84 Cat Watch 2014 - The Lion in Your Lap
08 October, 2014 9:00 pm
The second episode of this unique scientific study reveals the wild side of pet cats. Using GPS trackers and cat cameras, they show how these felines transform from pampered pet to purring predator as soon as they leave the cat flap.
Liz Bonnin and some of the world's top cat experts put Ozzy and Smudge under surveillance to find out who is king of the street and reveal why, no matter how hard we try, we can't keep our cats' hunting instincts under control.
0x85 Cat Watch 2014 - Cat Talk
09 October, 2014 9:00 pm
In the final episode of this groundbreaking scientific study, Liz Bonnin and a team of scientists reveal the secret language of our cats, the surprising conversations they have when we are asleep, and why they meow to us but not each other.
We rig a house with cameras and cat trackers to discover if four cats living under one roof all get on as well as we would like to think. And we find out why living alongside us is making life difficult for our 21st-century cats.
0x86 What's The Right Diet For You? (1)
12 January, 2015 9:00 pm
Instead of reaching for the latest fad diet, the best way to lose weight successfully is a personalised approach - diets tailored to your individual biology and psychology. In a groundbreaking national experiment, Dr Chris van Tulleken and Professor Tanya Byron join a team of leading experts to put 75 overweight volunteers on diets designed to tackle the specific reasons why they eat too much.
The volunteers are put through a series of tests at a residential clinic to understand how their genes, hormones and psychology influence their eating behaviour. They are then put on the diets the experts believe are best suited to them. Can science succeed where other diets have failed?
0x87 What's The Right Diet For You? (2)
13 January, 2015 9:00 pm
It is time to see if personalised dieting will work in normal life. The volunteers have been given one of three diets to follow - based on their genes, their hormones and their psychology. But now they are back at home, trying to stick to their personalised diets with all the stresses and temptations of real life.
Dr Chris van Tulleken and Professor Tanya Byron discover how our genetic makeup can make temptation difficult to resist, how understanding the brain reveals what makes us comfort eat and what science can tell us about why we make disastrous food choices.
0x88 What's The Right Diet For You? (3)
14 January, 2015 9:00 pm
So far the volunteers have successfully been losing lost weight, but now the honeymoon period is over. It is the final two months of the diet, and their minds and bodies are fighting back. Dr Chris van Tulleken and Professor Tanya Byron find out if the new personalised diets will help them stay on course, and the experts reveal the scientific secrets to permanent dieting success.
0x89 Climate Change: A Horizon Guide
04 March, 2015 9:00 pm
Today, the topic of climate change is a major part of daily life, yet 40 years ago it was virtually unheard of. Since then, Horizon and the BBC have followed scientists as they have tried to unpick how the climate works and whether it is changing. Dr Helen Czerski delves into this unique archive to chart the transformation of a little-known theory into one of the greatest scientific undertakings in history. It has been a constantly surprising journey of discovery that has revolutionised our understanding of climate, and seen scientists face unprecedented controversy and criticism.
0x90 The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide
09 March, 2015 9:00 pm
There are about 600 murders each year in the UK. So, what drives people to kill? Are some people born to kill or are they driven to it by circumstances?
Michael Mosley delves into the BBC archives to chart scientists' progress as they probed the mind of the murderer to try to understand why people kill, and to find out whether by understanding murder we can prevent it.
0x91 Tim Peake Special - How to be an Astronaut
13 December, 2015 9:00 pm
On the 15th December, Tim Peake will launch into space to be Britain's first astronaut on board the International Space Station.
For the past two years, Tim has been filming a video diary for Horizon showing the risks, pressures and rigorous training required to launch into space. Horizon also talks exclusively to his wife and two children as they prepare to wave him goodbye on his voyage to space.
From training in the Soyuz capsule, centrifuges, space station mockups, virtual reality and a huge pool to replicate spacewalks, to dealing with the physical dangers of weightlessness, witnessing his first launch and spending time away from his wife Rebecca and his two sons, this is an intimate portrait and remarkable insight into the world of an astronaut.
0x93 The Horizon Guide to AI
04 September, 2018 9:00 pm
The BBC's Horizon programme began in 1964, and since then has produced films looking at computer technology and the emergence of 'artificial intelligence'.
Our dreams always begin with ideology and optimism, only for this optimism to be replaced with suspicion that AI machines will take over. However, as the Horizon archive shows, throughout each decade once we have learnt to live with the new emerging technology of the time, the pattern begins again. We become once more optimistic, before becoming fearful of it. The dream for decades had been for a computer with AI to be embedded within a humanoid robot, but just as scientists began to perfect machines with these qualities, something happened nobody expected.
Today, AI systems power our daily lives through smart technology. We are currently experiencing a level of fear about the power of AI, but will we enter the next decade optimistic about all that AI can deliver - or fearful of its ability to control vast areas of our lives?
0x94 Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Revisited)
06 December, 2002 9:00 pm
How scientists now believe that dinosaurs may have actually come into existence thanks to an earlier meteoric impact.
0x95 You do as you are told (Revisited)
27 February, 2003 9:00 pm
Horizon brings you the update on Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments and the importance of those findings for today's world.
0x96 The Human Genome Project (Revisited)
06 March, 2003 9:00 pm
Horizon follows the updates by Baroness Helena Kennedy who revisits The Book of Man - originally broadcast in 1987 on the human genome project.
0x97 Michael Adler on AIDS (Revisited)
13 March, 2003 9:00 pm
This episode is an update by Professor Michael Adler who revisits the 1987 Horizon broadcast on AIDS, "Can AIDS be Stopped?"
0x98 Journey to the Moon: A Horizon Special
17 July, 2019 9:00 pm
Professor Brian Cox takes a journey through the BBC science archive to explore the story of mankind's relationship with the moon, from James Burke testing Nasa equipment to Neil Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface and the dramatic tale of Apollo 13. He also asks whether international competition could help reignite the public's enthusiasm for space travel and bring about the dawn of a new space age.
0x99 Alastair Campbell: Depression and Me
21 May, 2019 9:00 pm
In an intensely personal and often surprising film for BBC Two, Alastair Campbell candidly talks about his experience living with depression and explores if radical new treatments can make a difference.
Alastair is best known for his role as Tony Blair’s formidable and often contentious spin doctor, but, away from the public eye, he has been dogged by crippling bouts of depression for most of his life. Some days, just getting out of bed is too hard. Therapy and anti-depressant medication is helping him keep his head above water, but is that really the best he can hope for?
Encouraged by his family, Alastair sets out on a journey to explore if cutting edge science can offer him - and the millions of people like him - the hope of one day living depression-free. As he tries to understand his depression better, he also reflects on key events in his life and asks if they could have had a negative effect on his mind.
0x100 Ice Station Antarctica: Part One
21 May, 2016 9:00 pm
BBC weatherman Peter Gibbs makes an emotional return to Antarctica, years after he lived and worked at the British Antarctic Survey's Halley Research Station.
(Part One as shown on BBC News)
0x101 Ice Station Antarctica: Part Two
28 May, 2016 9:00 pm
BBC weatherman Peter Gibbs's return to Antarctica becomes something of a rescue mission. The British Antarctic Survey reveals how it will save the Halley Research Station from being cast adrift on an iceberg.
(Part Two as shown on BBC News)
0x102 Coronavirus Special - Part 1
09 April, 2020 9:00 pm
Investigating the scientific facts and figures behind the biggest public health crisis in living memory as a new coronavirus takes an unprepared world by storm.
0x103 Life Story
27 April, 1987 9:00 pm
Dramatisation of the race at the University of Cambridge in 1951 for the discovery of DNA.
0x104 Coronavirus Special - Part 2
19 May, 2020 9:00 pm
Dr Chris van Tulleken, Dr Hannah Fry and Michael Mosley examine the latest research and explore some of the big questions about the new coronavirus and the pandemic it has created.
0x105 Coronavirus Special - What We Know Now
25 February, 2021 9:00 pm
In this third Horizon special, Dr Chris Van Tulleken is joined by his brother Xand and Dr Guddi Singh to take us through the latest developments and answer current concerns.
Though the effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been devastating to many, the team reveal the breakthroughs in genetics, medicine and modelling that have provided a way out of this situation and given hope and confidence that, in the event of a future pandemic, we can take it on and win.
0x107 The Transit of Venus: A Horizon Special
05 June, 2012 9:00 pm
Liz Bonnin presents a Horizon special about a rare and beautiful event in our solar system, one that we should all be able to see for ourselves - the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. It will start just before midnight of the 5th of June, and won't happen again for more than a century.
Liz is joined by Lucie Green and Helen Czerski to show why the transit is such a remarkable event - transforming our understanding of our own solar system as well as helping scientists hunt for alien life on distant planets, hundreds of light years away.
0x108 Dolly: The Sheep That Changed the World
23 November, 2021 9:00 pm
This documentary tells the full story for the first time with never-before-seen archive, revealing how on a small Scottish farm, a handful of the world’s best genetic scientists worked in secret to crack the holy grail of life: cloning. The story, when it broke, caused a moral panic to sweep the world. But how did it happen? Who was behind it? What was the science? And, ultimately, what is Dolly’s legacy today?
0x109 Horizon Special: The Vaccine
16 June, 2021 9:00 pm
The extraordinary inside story of the biggest scientific challenge of our age - following a small band of vaccine scientists around the world who took on Covid-19 and ultimately delivered the weapon to beat it.
As news of the coronavirus broke around the globe, a small group of scientists jumped into action to tackle one of the greatest medical challenges of our time: to create a vaccine against a virus no-one had ever seen before and to do so in record time, all during a deadly, global pandemic.
0x110 Fergal Keane: Living with PTSD
09 May, 2022 9:00 pm
In 2020, BBC special correspondent Fergal Keane went public with his diagnosis of PTSD. In this personal film, Fergal lays bare its impact on himself and others like him.
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