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Can We Have Unlimited Power?

Michael Mosley shows how the most power-hungry generation that has ever lived has harnessed its power from wind, steam and from inside the atom.

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

We are the most power-hungry generation that has ever lived. This film tells the story of how that power has been harnessed - from wind, steam and from inside the atom. In the early years the drive for new sources of power was led by practical men who wanted to make money. Their inventions and ideas created fortunes and changed the course of history, but it took centuries for science to catch up, to explain what power is, rather than simply what it does. This search revealed fundamental laws of nature which apply across the universe, including the most famous equation in all of science, e=mc2.

1 hour

Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterMichael Mosley
DirectorNicola Cook
ProducerNicola Cook
Executive ProducerJohn Lynch
ProducerAidan Laverty

Broadcasts

  • Tue 18 May 201021:00
  • Tue 18 May 201022:30
  • Wed 19 May 201019:00
  • Thu 23 Dec 201002:05
  • Sun 6 Mar 201119:00
  • Mon 6 Jun 201100:45
  • Sat 21 Jun 201420:00
  • Sun 22 Jun 201403:00
  • Tue 24 Jun 201400:00