Interesting BBC programmes
I'm seriously ill by the way - I have the man flu - which if you are male you'll understand that I am very very nearly at deaths door and how I struggle on is a triumph against all adversity. Hang on why I just slurp my extra strength LemSip....
Right - I'll not dwell on my serious medical condition clearly...
I watched a couple of great programmes last night during a "home alone" period when my daughter and wife were at swimming training.
Firstly Dr Alice Roberts has an entertaining and educational programme on at the moment about the evolution of human beings. This was the second in the series. It is interesting the kind of things they are showing in the development of bipedal humans from tree dwelling apes in the forests. Driven by climate and forced change of habitat as the world changed around our ancestors. Interesting stuff - looking at how we evolved to a particular type of diet, why cooking might be the reason we developed bigger brains than the species before us etc.
Secondly I watched a programme with Marcus du Sautroy, who actually makes me wish I had paid more attention in A level Maths, in which he discussed the recent announcement of measurement of the speed of neutrinos being slightly above the speed of light. He brilliantly (valiantly) tried to explain why this matters, it blows up a lot of Einstein's theory, explains why for mathematicians there isn't a problem with something travelling faster than the speed of light (it just needs to come into existence at that speed, it can never be accelerated past that speed since that would take infinite energy). Now the problem could be a measurement issue, or some such. It was all jolly interesting, and again I listened to string theory in 4 minutes and simply have to say... sorry don't get it!! I doubt I'm the only one. Anyway - if you want to be confused, educated, entertained and bewildered all within an hour worth a watch.
I reflected briefly on the link between these two programmes. It was (in the grand scheme of things) only a short time ago that we were running around hunting game and digging up roots etc. as our only way of survival - now we are arrogant enough to talk about theories of "everything".
Right - I'll not dwell on my serious medical condition clearly...
I watched a couple of great programmes last night during a "home alone" period when my daughter and wife were at swimming training.
Firstly Dr Alice Roberts has an entertaining and educational programme on at the moment about the evolution of human beings. This was the second in the series. It is interesting the kind of things they are showing in the development of bipedal humans from tree dwelling apes in the forests. Driven by climate and forced change of habitat as the world changed around our ancestors. Interesting stuff - looking at how we evolved to a particular type of diet, why cooking might be the reason we developed bigger brains than the species before us etc.
Secondly I watched a programme with Marcus du Sautroy, who actually makes me wish I had paid more attention in A level Maths, in which he discussed the recent announcement of measurement of the speed of neutrinos being slightly above the speed of light. He brilliantly (valiantly) tried to explain why this matters, it blows up a lot of Einstein's theory, explains why for mathematicians there isn't a problem with something travelling faster than the speed of light (it just needs to come into existence at that speed, it can never be accelerated past that speed since that would take infinite energy). Now the problem could be a measurement issue, or some such. It was all jolly interesting, and again I listened to string theory in 4 minutes and simply have to say... sorry don't get it!! I doubt I'm the only one. Anyway - if you want to be confused, educated, entertained and bewildered all within an hour worth a watch.
I reflected briefly on the link between these two programmes. It was (in the grand scheme of things) only a short time ago that we were running around hunting game and digging up roots etc. as our only way of survival - now we are arrogant enough to talk about theories of "everything".
It seems the man flu has given you some time to contemplate the mysteries of the universe and all the theories therein :)!
ReplyDeleteI love shows like that! I'll have to check out the links later...
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Hope that you feel better soon. I had the flu a few weeks back. I think it was that "man-flu" cause, it was bad. :)
((Hugs))
Laura
Come on, you're supposed to watch rubbish when you're poorly. Husband recorded and wtached that evolution programme too.
ReplyDeleteJust noticed you have Girl Who Played with Fire in your book list. I loved the first one and have started but put to one side the second as I fear it may deal too graphically with violence against and by women.
You only didn't get the String Theory thing because of the man-flu.If you were up to speed, it would all have clicked in an instant.
ReplyDelete