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What Is Out There?

Michael Mosley explores how history has shaped science. He looks at how we came to understand that our planet was not at the centre of everything in the cosmos.

Michael Mosley embarks on an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.

Michael begins with the story of one of the great upheavals in human history, how we came to understand that our planet was not at the centre of everything in the cosmos but just one of billions of bodies in a vast and expanding universe.

He reveals the critical role of medieval astrologers in changing our view of the heavens, and the surprising connections to the upheavals of the Renaissance, the growth of coffee shops and Californian oil and railway barons.

Michael shows how important the practical skills of craftsmen have been to this story and finds out how Galileo made his telescope to peer at the heavens and by doing so helped change our view of the universe forever.

1 hour

Last on

Tue 3 Jun 201400:00

Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterMichael Mosley
DirectorJeremy Turner
ProducerAidan Laverty
Executive ProducerJohn Lynch

Broadcasts

  • Tue 27 Apr 201021:00
  • Wed 28 Apr 201000:15
  • Wed 28 Apr 201019:00
  • Tue 30 Nov 201002:10
  • Sun 13 Feb 201119:00
  • Mon 16 May 201102:20
  • Sat 31 May 201420:00
  • Sun 1 Jun 201402:50
  • Tue 3 Jun 201400:00