Wonders of Life Trailer - BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox examines the story of life through physics in a major new series for BBC Two - Wonders of Life.

QI: How Big Was Jesus's Foreskin?

October 21, 2011 on BBC Two

BBC - Wonders of the Universe - Episode 1: Destiny

Aired March 6, 2011 on BBC HD

Having explored the wonders of the solar system, Professor Brian Cox steps boldly on to an even bigger stage - the universe. In this episode, Brian seeks to understand the nature of time and its role in creating both the universe and ourselves. From an extraordinary calendar built into the landscape of Peru to the beaches of Costa Rica, Brian explores the cycles of time which define our experience of life on Earth. But even the most epic cycles of life can't begin to compare to the vast expanse of cosmic time. For instance, just as the Earth orbits the Sun, the solar system orbits the entire Milky Way galaxy. This orbit takes a staggering 250 million years to complete. Ultimately, Brian discovers that time is not characterised by repetition but by irreversible change. From the relentless march of a glacier, to the decay of an old mining town, the ravaging effects of time are all around us.

Science: A Challenge to TV Orthodoxy - Brian Cox

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Aired December 1, 2010 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox uses this year's Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture to address the main challenges in bringing science to television. He tackles the risks in simplifying science for a television audience, the perils of abandoning fact in the name of balance and the importance of making science on television intellectually and emotionally engaging.

Brian Cox: Why We Need The Explorers | TED2010

Filmed Apr 2010; Posted Jun 2010 on TED

In tough economic times, our exploratory science programs -- from space probes to the LHC -- are first to suffer budget cuts. Brian Cox explains how curiosity-driven science pays for itself, powering innovation and a profound appreciation of our existence.

BBC | Wonders of the Solar System | Episode 5: Aliens

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Aired April 4, 2010 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

Brian descends to the bottom of the Pacific in a submarine to witness the extraordinary life forms that survive in the cold, black waters. All life on Earth needs water so the search for aliens in the solar system has followed the search for water.

Soaring above the dramatic Scablands of the United States, Brian discovers how the same landscape has been found on Mars. And it was all carved out in a geological heartbeat by a monumental flood.

Armed with a gas mask, Brian enters a cave in Mexico where bacteria breathe toxic gas and leak concentrated acid. Yet relatives of these creatures could be surviving in newly-discovered caves on Mars.

But Brian's sixth wonder isn't a planet at all. Jupiter's moon Europa is a dazzling ball of ice etched with strange cracks. The patterns in the ice reveal that, far below, there is an ocean with more potentially life-giving water than all the oceans on Earth.

Of all the wonders of the solar system forged by the laws of nature, there is one that stands out. In the final episode of this series, Brian reveals the greatest wonder of them all.

Episode 1: Empire of the Sun
Episode 2: Order out of Chaos
Episode 3: The Thin Blue Line
Episode 4: Dead or Alive

BBC | Wonders of the Solar System | Episode 4: Dead or Alive

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Aired March 28, 2010 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on Earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

The worlds that surround our planet are all made of rock, but there the similarity ends. Some have a beating geological heart, others are frozen in time. Brian travels to the tallest mountain on Earth, the volcano Mauna Kea on Hawaii, to show how something as basic as a planet's size can make the difference between life and death. Even on the summit of this volcano, Brian would stand in the shade of the tallest mountain in the solar system, an extinct volcano on Mars called Olympus Mons, which rises up 27 km.

Yet the fifth wonder in the series isn't on a planet at all. It's on a tiny moon of Jupiter. The discoveries made on Io have been astonishing. This fragment of rock should be cold and dead, yet, with the volcanic landscape of eastern Ethiopia as a backdrop, Brian reveals why Io is home to extraordinary lakes of lava and giant volcanic plumes that erupt 500 km into the sky.

Episode 1: Empire of the Sun
Episode 2: Order out of Chaos
Episode 3: The Thin Blue Line
Episode 5 is now available on BBC iPlayer (UK only)

Brian Cox on The Jonathan Ross Show - Updated

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March 26, 2010 on BBC One
*Updated with full episode (Thanks Chris)

BBC | Wonders of the Solar System | Episode 3: The Thin Blue Line

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Aired March 21, 2010 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

Brian reveals how something as flimsy as an envelope of gas - an atmosphere - can create some of the most wondrous sights in the solar system. He takes a ride in an English Electric Lightning and flies 18 km up to the top of earth's atmosphere, where he sees the darkness of space above and the thin blue line of our atmosphere below. In the Namib desert in south-west Africa, he tells the story of Mercury. This tiny planet was stripped naked of its early atmosphere and is fully exposed to the ferocity of space.

Against the stunning backdrop of the glaciers of Alaska, Brian reveals his fourth wonder: Saturn's moon Titan, shrouded by a murky, thick atmosphere. He reveals that below the clouds lies a magical world. Titan is the only place beyond earth where we've found liquid pooling on the surface in vast lakes, as big as the Caspian Sea, but the lakes of Titan are filled with a mysterious liquid, and are quite unlike anything on earth.

Episode 1: Empire of the Sun
Episode 2: Order out of Chaos
(Thanks to AnonH5N1)

BBC | Wonders of the Solar System | Episode 2: Order out of Chaos

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Aired March 14, 2010 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

Brian reveals how beauty and order in earth's cosmic backyard was formed from nothing more than a chaotic cloud of gas. Chasing tornados in Oklahoma, he explains how the same physics that creates these spinning storms shaped the young solar system. Out of this celestial maelstrom emerged the jewel in the crown, Brian's second wonder - the magnficent rings of Saturn.

On an ice-choked lagoon in Iceland, he sees the nearest thing on Earth to Saturn's rings. Using the latest scientific imagery and breathtaking graphics, he explains how the intricate patterns round Saturn are shaped by the cluster of more than 60 moons surrounding the planet.

One of those moons makes a spectacular contribution to the rings and is the third wonder of the solar system. Brian describes the astonishing discovery of giant fountains of ice erupting from the surface of Enceladus, which soar thousands of kilometres into space.

Episode 1: Empire of the Sun
(Thanks to Sydenham Infidel)

BBC | Wonders of the Solar System | Episode 1: Empire of the Sun

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Updated with new link thanks to Sydenham Infidel
Aired March 7, 2010 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.
In this first episode Brian explores the powerhouse of them all, the sun. In India he witnesses a total solar eclipse - when the link to the light and heat that sustains us is cut off for a few precious minutes.

But heat and light are not the only power of the sun over the solar system. In Norway, Brian watches the battle between the sun's wind and earth, as the night sky glows with the northern lights.
Beyond earth, the solar wind continues, creating dazzling aurora on other planets. Brian makes contact with Voyager, a probe that has been travelling since its launch 30 years ago. Now 14 billion kilometres away, Voyager has just detected the solar wind is beginning to peter out. But even here we haven't reached the end of the sun's rule.

Brian explains how its greatest power, gravity, reaches out for hundreds of billions of kilometres, where the lightest gravitational touch encircles our solar system in a mysterious cloud of comets.

Episode 2: Order out of Chaos
Episode 3: The Thin Blue Line
Episode 4: Dead or Alive
Episode 5: Aliens
(Thanks to Aheist Planet)

Wonders of the Solar System - Trailer - BBC Two

Airs March 7, 2010 at 9PM on BBC Two

In this spell-binding series, Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on Earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the Solar System.
Read more

(via Derren Brown Blog)

Five Minutes With: Professor Brian Cox

Posted February 20, 2010 on BBC News

Celebrities and news-makers are grilled by Matthew Stadlen in exactly five minutes in a series for the BBC News website.

This week, physicist and presenter Professor Brian Cox talks about the excitement of working on the Large Hadron Collider, his science heroes, how his taste in music is ageing, and he gives a beginner's guide to the Big Bang.

(via RichardDawkins.net)

Nerdstock: 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People

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Aired January 23, 2010 on BBC Four

A non-religious Christmas celebration of comedy, science and music recorded live at London's Hammersmith Apollo in December 2009. Stand-up comedian and humanist Robin Ince is joined by a host of leading lights from the world of science, including Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Simon Singh and Ben Goldacre, as well as musicians and top comedians from Mark Steel to Shappi Khorsandi.

Full line up:
Robin Ince, Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Mark Steel, Richard Herring, Shappi Khorsandi, Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden, Robyn Hitchcock, Jim Bob and Baba Brinkman.

Brian Cox: What Went Wrong (And What's Next) at the Large Hadron Collider

Filmed Feb 2009; Posted May 2009 on TED

In this short talk from TED U 2009, Brian Cox shares what's new with the CERN supercollider. He covers the repairs now underway and what the future holds for the largest science experiment ever attempted.

BBC Horizon: Can We Make a Star on Earth?

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Aired February 28, 2009 on BBC Two

Professor Brian Cox takes a global journey in search of the energy source of the future. Called nuclear fusion, it is the process that fuels the sun and every other star in the universe. Yet despite over five decades of effort, scientists have been unable to get even a single watt of fusion electricity onto the grid.

Brian returns to Horizon to find out why. Granted extraordinary access to the biggest and most ambitious fusion experiments on the planet, Brian travels to the USA to see a high security fusion bomb testing facility in action and is given a tour of the world's most powerful laser. In South Korea, he clambers inside the reaction chamber of K-Star, the world's first super-cooled, super-conducting fusion reactor where the fate of future fusion research will be decided.

*New tag: Brian Cox (6 posts)
(via Skepticat)

BBC Horizon: Do You Know What Time It Is?

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First aired December 2, 2008 on BBC Two

Particle physicist Professor Brian Cox asks, 'What time is it?' It's a simple question and it sounds like it has a simple answer. But do we really know what it is that we're asking?

Brian visits the ancient Mayan pyramids in Mexico where the Maya built temples to time. He finds out that a day is never 24 hours and meets Earth's very own Director of Time. He journeys to the beginning of time, and goes beyond within the realms of string theory, and explores the very limit of time. He discovers that we not only travel through time at the speed of light, but the experience we feel as the passing of time could be an illusion.

Brian Cox: The Big Bang Machine

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Aired: September 4, 2008 on BBC 4

Professor Brian Cox visits Geneva to take a look around Cern's Large Hadron Collider before this vast, 27km long machine is sealed-off and the experiment to create the simulation of a black hole begins. When it's up and running, it will be capable of creating the conditions that existed just a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. Brian joins the scientists who hope that the LHC will change our understanding of the early universe and solve some of its mysteries. And not suck the planet into oblivion, naturally. How would they publish their results and make money out of the chat show circuit if that happened?

Thanks to Sydenham Infidel for the link.
*Will soon be available on Google video.

Brian Cox: What really goes on at the Large Hadron Collider

Filmed Mar 2007; Posted Apr 2008 Link

"Rock star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive complex and describes his part in it -- and the vital role it's going to play in understanding our universe.

BBC Horizon: What on Earth is Wrong With Gravity?

Link
New scientific documentary
Aired: Tuesday 29th January 2008 on BBC2
Particle physicist and ex D:Ream keyboardist Dr. Brian Cox believes that the answer to the meaning of the universe lies in gravity. On a road trip across the USA, Brian fires lasers at the moon in Texas and goes wild in the desert in Arizona. He encounters the bending of space and time at a maximum security military base and tries to detect ripples in our reality in the swamps of Louisiana.