Revelations and Revolutions
Jim Al-Khalili concludes by looking at how, if we could understand the secret of electrical superconductivity, we could once again transform the world.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Until fairly recently, electricity was seen as a magical power, but it is now the lifeblood of the modern world and underpins every aspect of our technological advancements.
Without electricity, we would be lost. This series tells of dazzling leaps of imagination and extraordinary experiments - a story of maverick geniuses who used electricity to light our cities, to communicate across the seas and through the air, to create modern industry and to give us the digital revolution.
Electricity is not just something that creates heat and light, it connects the world through networks and broadcasting. After centuries of man's experiments with electricity, the final episode tells the story of how a new age of real understanding dawned - how we discovered electric fields and electromagnetic waves. Today we can hardly imagine life without electricity - it defines our era. As our understanding of it has increased so has our reliance upon it, and today we are on the brink of a new breakthrough, because if we can understand the secret of electrical superconductivity, we could once again transform the world.
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Clips
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Liz Bruton tells the story of Guglielmo Marconi's rise to fame
Duration: 09:19
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Jim Al-Khalili |
Producer | Alex Freeman |
Director | Alex Freeman |
Series Producer | Steve Crabtree |
Executive Producer | Tina Fletcher-Hill |
Broadcasts
- Thu 20 Oct 2011 21:00
- Thu 20 Oct 2011 23:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD
- Fri 21 Oct 2011 03:05
- Sat 21 Jan 2012 20:00
- Sun 22 Jan 2012 00:35
- Sun 13 May 2012 20:00
- Mon 14 May 2012 01:05
- Thu 22 Nov 2012 20:00
- Fri 23 Nov 2012 00:30
- Sat 24 Nov 2012 20:00
- Sun 25 Nov 2012 02:40
- Tue 1 Dec 2015 22:00
- Thu 3 Dec 2015 01:20
- Wed 10 May 2017 21:00
- Thu 11 May 2017 03:00
- Thu 30 Aug 2018 20:00
- Fri 31 Aug 2018 03:00
- Mon 15 Jun 2020 17:00Red Button One
- Tue 16 Jun 2020 18:00Red Button One
- Wed 17 Jun 2020 15:00Red Button One
- Wed 17 Jun 2020 20:00
- Thu 18 Jun 2020 02:50
- Thu 18 Jun 2020 16:00Red Button One
- Fri 19 Jun 2020 17:00Red Button One
Find out more about electricity with The Open University
Discover how much energy it takes to start up a range of objects in an interactive game.