One of the main battles of the Second World War took place inside the brain of a mathematician called Alan Turing. During the war, the allies' key objective was to crack the German army's encrypted communications code. Without a doubt, the key player in the game was this interdisciplinary scientist and a long-forgotten hero. Alan Turing's breakthroughs, his story and tragic destiny, gives us a chance to look at the Second World War from a different angle.
Scientists on the BICEP and Planck missions are attempting to solve a mystery about the earliest moments of our universe, by searching for patterns in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). If successful, the missions will help to answer the biggest question anyone can ask: how did our universe begin?
Sir David Attenborough presents this landmark documentary which brings to life, in unprecedented detail, the lost world of the very last days of the dinosaurs. Searching in the hills of North Dakota, palaeontologist Robert DePalma makes an incredible discovery in a prehistoric graveyard known as Tanis - fossilised creatures, astonishingly well preserved like the bodies found at Pompeii. Whilst DePalma hunts for the evidence that can shed light on the final days of the dinosaurs, state-of-the-art VFX transports Sir David back in time to the Late Cretaceous to witness the creatures who lived at Tanis at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. Meanwhile, cutting edge scanning techniques reveal fossilised secrets that could change our understanding of the dinosaurs' extinction once and for all.
According to recent science the Neanderthals are not the knuckle-dragging apemen of popular imagination. The first part of the film investigates what Neanderthals looked like and how they lived in their Ice Age world. They were faster, smarter, better looking - and much more like us than we ever thought. Our guide is Ella Al-Shamahi, who enlists the skills of Andy Serkis, the master of performance capture, and a group of experts to investigate deeply Neanderthals appearance. In the second part, Ella explores the fate of the Neanderthals - asking why they became extinct, and discovering how they live on inside of us today. About 2% of the DNA of most people is of Neanderthal origin - and it continues to affect us today. Neanderthals were a people who were supremely well adapted to their environment. But about 40,000 years ago they disappeared. Why?
A third of the population regularly struggle with our sleep, which rose to one in two during the pandemic - the highest it's ever been. However, as more and more people seek help, an explosion in sleep science is enabling the study of sleep in ways not possible before. What's more, recent breakthroughs are uncovering what's happening in our brains and bodies while we're asleep, getting us closer than ever to understanding the importance of sleep for our health. Michael Mosley shows why cutting our sleep short can be linked to a host of illnesses, including serious diseases like Alzheimer's. Revealing the very latest science breakthroughs and packed with personal anecdotes, this programme is a useful guide to anyone looking for tips and insights on how to get the benefits from learning how to sleep well.
Technology is defining the future of warfare, providing capabilities that were previously unreachable. Every technological leap redraws the battle lines we once knew. The future of warfare lies beyond battlefields to the uncharted reaches of outer space, and even to the digital realm. In the first episode, artificial intelligence and autonomy are no longer just the field of science fiction; they are a key part of the fourth industrial revolution, and successfully harnessing the power of this new technology will be integral to the success of future warfare.
Alan Turing's breakthroughs, his story and tragic destiny, gives us a chance to look at the Second World War from a different angle.