Forces of Nature
Professor Brian Cox is on a tour of our planet to explain what lies beneath Earth’s startling beauty and ultimately what makes our world work. In this thrilling science documentary, using cutting-edge filming techniques, he explores the simplest possible questions about the planet we live on. Why is water blue? Why do bees make hexagonal honeycombs? And what forces dictate how we live?
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Forces Of Nature on BBC Select
Episode 1: The Universe in a Snowflake
Professor Brian Cox explains how the most irregular and unusual shapes in nature emerge.
Brian Cox uncovers how the stunning diversity of shapes in our natural world are shadows of the rules that govern the Universe. In Nepal, honey-hunters seek out giant beehives. The perfect hexagonal honeycombs made by the bees conceal a mathematical rule. Even snowflakes tell an extraordinary story of the forces of nature that forged them, the same forces that created everything in the Universe.
Episode 2: Somewhere in Spacetime
The Earth is traveling at an incredible speed. But why can’t we feel this movement?
Our planet is thundering through the universe at breakneck speed. But why can’t we feel it? Brian Cox follows Earth’s journey through space. He flies in a jet to race the spin of the planet and reverse the passage of the day. Understanding motion helps us to understand the nature of space and time, leading to the astonishing conclusion that the past, present and future all exist right now.
Episode 3: The Moth and the Flame
Professor Brian Cox investigates how chemical elements became the building blocks of life.
Prof Cox shows how Earth’s basic ingredients, like the pure sulphur mined in a deadly volcano, have become the building blocks of life. Hidden deep in a cave in the Dominican Republic lies a magical world created by the same property of water that makes it essential to life. Clinging to a precipitous dam wall in Italy, baby mountain goats seek out elements essential to their survival.
Episode 4: The Pale Blue Dot
Brian Cox explains the science behind the colors of the planet and why they exist.
Professor Brian Cox travels to Iceland, where the delicate splendor of a moonbow reveals the colors that paint our world. By exploring how sunlight transforms the plains of the Serengeti, drives the annual migration of humpback whales to the Caribbean and paints the moon red during a lunar eclipse, he reveals the color signature of our life-supporting planet.
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