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Horizon
1964 · TV series · documentary · 60 min episodes · 62 seasons
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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32 comments on Hacker News
>one-hour TV documentary-style shows like BBC Horizon or PBS Nova.
Yep, these must be them, but our Swedish state TV buys them and somewhat rebrands them, but the BBC logo is usually there at the end.
Yes they are much more flashy and "americanized" compared to 10-15 years ago. Sadly. I still appreciate them.
I do constantly have to tap out with the stress in many programs, takes me ages to pick up and finish programs. Many people need tension to drive a narrative forwards, but for me it often gets too much.
I remember 80 Days Around the world where peril of missing a connection gave it tension; ever since documentaries seem to have used this more and more.
The BBC Horizon episode on Voyager passing Jupiter was so inspirational to me, but now we just being ridden by TV personalities.
One of my favorite Horizon episodes is the FLT one that features Prof. Andrew Wiles' development of his proof (I have watched it many times). Of course, it is grounded in Fermat's margin note about his having a wonderful proof that couldn't fit in said margin. At the end of the documentary, the various mathematicians in it note that AW's proof certaintly wasn't what PdF had in mind because AW's proof is thorougly modern.
So I have wondered about PdF's possible thinking.
Now, the degenerate case of n=2 is just the Pythagorean Theorem
c^2 = a^2 + b^2 and we now know from AW's proof that the cubic and beyond fail.
Now, the PT is successful because the square b^2 can be "squished" over the corner of a^2, leaving a perfect square c^2. [Let's let the a^n part be the bigger of the two.]
5^2 = 4^2 + 3^2 25 = 16 + 9 25 = 16 + (4 + 4 + 1) Each of the 4's go on the sides, and the 1 goes on the corner, leaving a pure 5x5 square left over.
Now, for cubes, we now know that a cube cannot be "squished" onto another cube's corner in such a way that makes a bigger cube.
I'm not up for breaking out my (diminishing) algebra right now (as it's a brain off day), but that b^3 cube would need to break down into three flat sides, three linear edges, and the corner.
This fits my physical intuition of the problem and seems to me to be a possible way that PdF might have visualized the cubic form. Now, I have zero mathematical intuition about such things (or necessary math skills either), but the physical nature of the problem, plus the fact that we now know that the cubic and beyond don't work, leads me to wonder if this is an interesting approach. It also makes me curious to know why it isn't, if that is indeed the case, (which I assume is probable).
As to the n=4 and beyond, I would just hand-wave them away and say something like, "Well, of course they are more fractally impossible", which by that I mean that a real mathematician would have to say exactly why the n=3 case failing means that the n>=4 case would also not work. (My guess here is that there just becomes less and less possibility of matching up higher-dimensional versions of a two-term addition.)
Anyway, just a thought I had some years ago. I even built a lego model of the bits of cube spreading out along the corner of the a^3 cube.
I would enjoy learning why I'm so utterly wrong about this, but I found it a fun mental exercise some years ago that's been swimming around in my brain.
Thanks in advance if there are any takers around here. :-)
[And, my favorite Horizon episode is 'Freak Wave'.]
I miss the Horizon series, it was excellent the one on Voyager passing Jupiter was inspirational.
It faded out with the ignomony of more magazine programmes to broaden interest in science, I was a bit stunned to see one of the last episodes on cosmetic surgery.
I guess I’m wired up different, I hate documentaries that depend on false jeopardy to keep people hooked watching it, Michael Pasin’s 80 days Around the World seemed to usher in the end of the world, although it took longer than 80 days.
I did Nuffield physics in high school (taught by Sade's uncle, no less!). I hated it (even though I loved physics).
My central problem with it was the centrality of us rediscovering things that we already knew were known. Those of us doing A-level physics weren't living in a bubble - we watched Horizon (BBC science doc series) and other documentaries and we had a good sense of, say, basic Newtonian physics. Yet here we were in school, rolling wooden trucks down wooden slopes with ticker tape trailing behind them so that we could "discover" acceleration and mass etc.
Maybe that worked for some pepple; definitely didn't work for me. I wanted to move on from the "fundamental" discoveries of the past, not recapitulate them.
that phrase reminds me of this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-19771978-now-the-chips-are-down
The BBC has some extremely good content... nature documentaries (David Attenborough), science shows (Horizon), archaeological/history (Digging for Britain), comedy (Ghosts), comedy/news/current affairs (Have I Got News For You). The US does big budget shows very well, but for a wide variety of content I really miss the BBC when I can't access it. I'm obviously biased though.
Yep, exactly.
My cognitive abilities at my actual age (mid 40s) improved significantly when I quit with my younger age lifestyle, much more than exercise could do.
Of course I'm not saying that exercise is futile it surely keeps the body healthy and that's extremely important as years go by.
the old saying "mens sana in corpore sano" ( a healthy mind in an healthy body) is still relevant today for a good reason.
My theory is that is not exercise per se, but the power drained by the excercise.
There's a good example about it in an episode of the BBC series Horizon where people are asked to solve simple arithmetic computations and then to do the same while walking at a fast pace.
All of the people involved need to stop to complete them.
The cognitive part of our brain is very power hungry and can't function properly when power is needed somewhere else.
I think that power drain from exercise can prevent becoming more and more risk adverse because it keeps us from over thinking things, the inner thoughts are mostly about negative outcomes (not specifically negative thoughts, just the outcome)
So theoretically we could gain the same benefits by tricking us into thinking about the positive outcomes.
I am not an expert in such matter, so take everything I say with many grains of salt.
p.s. I was walking when writing this and I had to stop to write something that made sense.
I also remember those episodes of Horizon! I distinctly remember their use of early computer graphics, The Planet Suite and the photos from the probes to create a stunning vision of a giant planet barrelling majestically through the cosmos.
I've always had a soft spot for ancient-tech-scifi a la Mass Effect/Expanse/Horizon/Raised By Wolves, and of course StarGate. In that regard Atlantis should be right up my alley as I like most fictional Atlantis-depictions.
What I disliked about SG:A wasn't the setup or the actors (which had fun chemistry), but the antagonists/wraiths that I found completely uninteresting, and the droning problem-of-the-week episodes, with too little focus on developing the backstory of the city/ship/base itself.
SG1 was definitely a show of the 90s TV show archetype too, but atleast evolved into higher stakes, borrowed tech, Asgardians, etc.
I remember this being an annoyance for a long time.
BBC horizon documentaries pretty much took the prize when it came to endless stock video with ambient music and aimless "poetic" quotes from various eccentric scientists talking about some interesting but essentially fantastical topic far removed from any reality or future.
First I would find the episode or likely episode in one of these lists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Horizon_episodes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318224/episodes?ref_=tt_eps_sm
Then hunt for that episode. There are a lot of episode online.
For instance: https://archive.org/details/BBCHorizonCollection512Episodes
There's BBC Horizon episode called "What happened before the Big Bang?" where Penrose stated that he used t to kinda roll his eyes when people asked what happened before because the question didn't make sense. The whole episode is a wild ride including people from the Perimeter Institute proving soon to me how bizarre theoretical physics is at its frontier. Highly recommended watch.
That seemed to be the conclusion of this BBC Horizon documentary.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01qmgrx
Absolutely.
To go a little bit more high brow.
Imagine being able to go through all the Horizon documentaries. Or the Open University Stuff.
What about being able to watch political discussions on joining the Common Market.
Quite why most of this stuff isn't viewed as a public library that we have the right to access, I don't know.
Wild Wild Country on Netflix is outstanding: https://www.netflix.com/title/80145240/
I'm also a big fan of BBC Horizon's episodes, they cover a wide range of topics and generally are quite excellent and well researched. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf
Uh? "This video contains content from Crowley Media, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
Anyone having the same problem? (I'm in NY)
EDIT: ok, I got it. This is from BBC, so likely only available in the UK. I found a copy on their site [1], and the player is more explicit - "BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues." Need to watch through VPN...
EDIT 2: Here's one that works [2], without VPN.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-19771978-now-the-chips-are-down
[2] https://archive.org/details/BBCHorizon19771978NowTheChipsAreDown
It's not the Hawking radiation, it's the friction caused by the gravitational forces (also thought to include magnetic fields) compressing and superheating the matter, which in turn causes it to emit light.
It's apparently thought that the hole doesn't just immediately swallow up matter whole, and that it's not easy for matter to enter the hole at all. Rather the matter is sort of captured and slowly ground down by friction, leaving an accretion disc surrounding the event horizon. Black holes also emit "x-ray jets" that are thought to be observable.
That said, I'm not a physicist. This is just what I've gleaned from articles and Horizon documentaries.
http://www.drbriffa.com/2014/01/30/my-take-on-the-horizon-documentary-sugar-v-fat/
There's a BBC Horizon episodes with two identical twins, one goes for the low fat diet and the other for low carb diet to test which one is worse.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t8r4h http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1amh2t_bbc-horizon-sugar-v-fat-h264-1280x720-aac-rmac_lifestyle
I posted this because I just watched a documentary about the earth's core on the BBC and the stuff about the implications of the south-Atlantic anomaly fascinated me.
It's a few years old but worth a watch if you have an hour to spare:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0148vph/horizon-20112012-4-the-core
There's a great BBC documentary with Michael Portillo on how to most humanely execute a person:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/executions/
Hypoxia seems the most kind way. Low pressure is not needed, just a lack of oxygen (by e.g. breathing helium). I suppose it's not enough of a punishment to go out this way, as it's rather pleasant as these things go (there's no feeling of suffocation) and there can even be a mild euphoria.
BBC Horizon actually did a show on the importance of checklists and how they save lives in medical settings, and because of that I'm trying to start using checklists at work as well when practicable.
The episode is called How To Avoid Mistakes In Surgery for those interested.
Available at torrent sites near you!
This BBC documentary is a complete insight into the production of microchips and the labor revolution they started.
I watched it yesterday and I appreciated the perspective of what now is "the computing revolution" from a very prudent point of view, analyzing if this could really be something big or not. In hindsight, it has been obvious, but in 1978 it was unclear whether their applications would be.
If anybody wants a higher res video, here's a BBC link, which can be watched from the UK of with a VPN-like service, e.g. 'Hola': http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-19771978-now-the-chips-are-down
Michael Mosley did an interesting episode for the BBC on the benefits of fasting and periodic dietary restriction: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer
One of the artifacts of this is that Canadian music can sometimes be segregated to its own station, as if "Canadian music" was a genre. XM did this for example.
As a Canadian though there are few Canadian shows I'm interested in. Maybe the occasional CBC DocZone, but that's about it.
I would like to see more of BBC model over here, it seems to work out swimmingly for them. (Doctor Who, Horizon, Top Gear, This World, and that's before you get to the one-off films)
BBC Four does exactly what you suggest re:exploring a topic through past Horizon episodes.
The BBC has the long running tv documentaries "Horizon". Some of these are excellent.
I would really like to see the BBC making use of this archive material by re-running old episodes, perhaps with discussion from the scientists involved before hand talking about advances since the programme was made or where they went right / wrong.
Or perhaps the BBC could have a topic and collate clips from all the previous episodes to show how acience has tackled that topic over the years.
There's. Brilliant radio programme called "The Reunion" which does something similar for news and current affairs.
Here's their episode about Dolly the Sheep. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mhsdw
Here's their episode about the centre for alternative technology http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s393k
The format works well for the political stuff because the presenter (Sue MacGregor) is a respected journalist and was working at the time, and distance from events means people explain and explore without being so invested in a political position.
The UK BBC tv programme "Horizon" had an episode called "Defeating the superbugs"[1]. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ms5c6)
It had a great clip showing bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. They became so resistant that the antibiotics had reached the solubility level of the stuff they were using; they couldn't use more antibiotics because it wouldn't dissolve.
[1] Yes, the hyperbolic name is unfortunate.
A recent Horizon (BBC) documentary described some evidence that not everybody gets the 'full' signal in the same way or with the same strength.
If this is right then your advice will work for a significant proportion of the population (maybe even a majority) but that it won't work for everybody.
You still have regional concerns. Some are purchased from the BBC (like some episode of Horizon or Imagine) or are co-funded (like the Earth series). Those contracts will only allow viewing in the US.
I've actually seen a BBC Horizon documentary a while ago, "Do You Know What Time Is?" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fyl5z], that also talks about this. On top of all the theoretical background, they interview people at the US Army that manage the GPS sattelites, and show how they have to resync the internal clocks every day because of this.
Worth a watch if you like this kind of material.
EDIT: Sorry, I believe it was a different episode: "What On Earth Is Wrong With Gravity?" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/gravity/]
Here are the online video links to both episodes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3aYKAJEVfQ
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-421765295887486158