The Conquest of Light(1960)

A Brief History of Time(en)

This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.

Living Worlds(en)

What forms might life take in the Solar System and beyond? In the Academy's newest original planetarium show, see how a deeper understanding of Earth might help us locate other living worlds, light years away.

Die Sonne(de)

The sun is the miracle that makes everything possible - but also the greatest danger. For the first time, a feature-length documentary is dedicated to the search for the significance of our home star for mankind, science and nature. Thanks to the researchers from the American space agency NASA, who work at the Canary Islands observatories in the hottest and coldest places on the planet.

Land of White Alice(en)

Film sponsored by Western Electric (AT&T's equipment manufacturing division), the builder of the United States Air Force's White Alice Communications System in Alaska. Introduces the people and geography of the new state as well as the Western Electric radio-relay system, which links far-flung military sites, alert stations, and missile-warning facilities. Ralph Caplan praised the film's "intrinsically dramatic and highly photogenic" portrayal of communications equipment.

Moving Up in Amateur Radio(en)

An information film educating and encouraging aspiring radio CB'ers to get into ham radio.

Microcosmos(fr)

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

Searching for Skylab, America's Forgotten Triumph(en)

The first American space station Skylab is found in pieces scattered in Western Australia. Putting these pieces back together and re-tracing the Skylab program back to its very conception reveals the cornerstone of human space exploration.

Hermann Heinzel Ornithologist(fr)

Portrait of Hermann Heinzel.

Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution(en)

The 1977 discovery of RNA splicing by Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, Kentucky farm boy turned Nobel-prize winning scientist, set the stage for a revolution in molecular biology, enabling research into a new class of medicines predicated on recombinant DNA techniques ranging from the development of synthetic insulin and human growth hormone to the COVID-19 vaccine.

CERN(en)

CERN in Switzerland is a research center where they try to recreate the big bang. Nikolaus Geyrhalter follows the center's infrastructure and meets the people who created the "Large Hadron Collider".

Root of All Evil?(en)

In this two-part Channel 4 series, Professor Richard Dawkins challenges what he describes as 'a process of non-thinking called faith'. He describes his astonishment that, at the start of the 21st century, religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth. Science, based on scepticism, investigation and evidence, must continuously test its own concepts and claims. Faith, by definition, defies evidence: it is untested and unshakeable, and is therefore in direct contradiction with science. In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, in fact, says Dawkins, they bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, he argues, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress to become more enlightened and more tolerant.

Perseverance, une année sur Mars(fr)

Solaride: Courage to Do the Impossible(et)

The Estonian national team is the first Baltic team to participate in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, the solar car world championship in Australia. This is a competition with a 35-year history, which has been launched to push the boundaries of both green technology and the capabilities of young talents. The documentary follows young Estonian engineers and software developers and tells the story through their eyes of how the solar car is developed, built and prepared for the challenge in one of the most complex competitions in the world. Young people have to face tough competition conditions, technical and mental challenges and competitors from the world's top universities.

The Frog(en)

An educational film about frogs produced by Encyclopædia Britannica Films, an educational film production company in the 20th century owned by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.

Cosmic Voyage(en)

The Academy Award® nominee Cosmic Voyage combines live action with state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery to pinpoint where humans fit in our ever-expanding universe. Highlighting this journey is a "cosmic zoom" based on the powers of 10, extending from the Earth to the largest observable structures in the universe, and then back to the subnuclear realm.

Exploring the Spectrum(en)

An exciting video journey through the world of time-lapse photography by one of the founders of the science of photobiology, Dr. John Nash Ott. Do fluorescent lights cause cancer and childhood learning and behavior disorders? Can long-term exposure to low-level radiation as from TV sets, computers, fluorescent lights, and similar devices harm you? Does living behind window glass and with glasses covering our eyes over years affect our health? Is natural sunlight and trace ultra-violet radiation really harmful? Or is it necessary and beneficial? How do cells, plants, and animals respond to constant exposure to different light color frequencies? These and similar questions were the subjects of Dr. Ott's pioneering investigations in the field of photobiology, using the methods of time-lapse photography.

The Meteor(sv)

A large iron meteorite is found by two enthusiasts. But who owns it? A subtle film about property rights that develops into a philosophical and slightly absurd story.

Cern and the Sense of Beauty(it)

An exploration of the link between science and beauty through the work of scientists at CERN, in Geneva.

Stephen Hawking and The Theory of Everything(en)

Twenty years after A Brief History of Time flummoxed the world with its big numbers and black holes, its author, Stephen Hawking, concedes that the "ultimate theory" he'd believed to be imminent - which would conclusively explain the origins of life, the universe and everything - remains frustratingly elusive. Yet despite his failing health and the seeming impossibility of the task, Hawking is still devoted to his work; an extraordinary drive that's captured here in fleeting interview snippets and footage of the scientist sharing a microwave dinner with some fawning PhD students. Though the pop-science tutorials that dapple the first of this two-part biography are winningly perky, Hawking, alas, remains as tricky to fathom as his boggling quantum whatnots

Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know(en)

Black holes stand at the limit of what we can know. To explore that edge of knowledge, the Event Horizon Telescope links observatories across the world to simulate an earth-sized instrument. With this tool the team pursues the first-ever picture of a black hole, resulting in an image seen by billions of people in April 2019. Meanwhile, Hawking and his team attack the black hole paradox at the heart of theoretical physics—Do predictive laws still function, even in these massive distortions of space and time? Weaving them together is a third strand, philosophical and exploratory using expressive animation. “Edge” is about practicing science at the highest level, a film where observation, theory, and philosophy combine to grasp these most mysterious objects.