Jim Al-Khalili

Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman present a celebrity version of the general knowledge quiz in which contestants try to come up with the answers that nobody else could think of.

Take a mind-blowing journey through human history, told through six iconic objects that modern people take for granted, and see how science, invention and technology built on one another to change everything.

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.

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics. With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and James May, Brian shows how diamonds - the hardest material in nature - are made up of nothingness; how things can be in an infinite number of places at once; why everything we see or touch in the universe exists; and how a diamond in the heart of London is in communication with the largest diamond in the cosmos.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates the important concepts of energy and information.

Professor of physics Jim Al-Khalili investigates the most accurate and yet perplexing scientific theory ever - quantum physics.

Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing? Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili shows how, by uncovering its secrets, scientists have used light to reveal the universe.

Jim Al-Khalili tackles the greatest question in science - how the universe began. By recreating key experiments Jim unravels the mystery of science's creation story.

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili as he shows us how science gives us insight into the biggest questions of all. How did the universe come into being? How did life start on Earth, and how does it sustain itself? What is the nature of space and time – and how will it all end?

Genius of Britain is a five-part television documentary presented by leading British scientific figures, such as Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, James Dyson, David Attenborough, Robert Winston, Paul Nurse, Jim Al-Khalili, Kathy Sykes and Olivia Judson. The series charts the history of some of Britain's most important scientists and innovators. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 30 May 2010.

The story of the discovery that everything is made from atoms, one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in history, and the brilliant minds behind it.

The ultimate guide to the Solar System, told by the dedicated people who sent spacecraft to explore the sun, the planets and much more.

Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of how the elements, the building blocks that make up our entire world, were discovered and mapped.

From the award-winning team that brought you The Secret Life of Chaos comes a unique television event on the physics of gravity.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili unravels the mysteries of arguably the most complex object in the cosmos: the human brain.

In this mind-bending series, Jim Al-Khalili explores the vast range of size in the universe, from tiny atoms to gigantic, interconnected galaxies.

Pioneering documentary maker Philomena Cunk returns with her most ambitious quest to date: venturing right up the universe and everything to examine life and existence in an attempt to find out the point of it all. Along the way, she interrogates experts on subjects from the big bang to biology and art to artificial intelligence. Really get to the nub of it.

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics. With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and James May, Brian shows how diamonds - the hardest material in nature - are made up of nothingness; how things can be in an infinite number of places at once; why everything we see or touch in the universe exists; and how a diamond in the heart of London is in communication with the largest diamond in the cosmos.

Like all great science fiction shows, there are kernels of truth and nuggets of science fact scattered throughout the incredible ‘Doctor Who’ universe. In this special, we are going to explore these dynamic ‘Doctor Who’ moments where science fiction and science fact converge and mingle.

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox takes an audience of celebrity guests and members of the public on a journey into the wonderful universe of the Doctor, from the lecture hall of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Drawing on the latest theories as well as 200 years of scientific discoveries and the genius of Einstein, Brian tries to answer the classic questions raised by the Doctor. Can you really travel in time? Does extra-terrestrial life exist in our galaxy? And how do you build something as fantastical as the TARDIS?

Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning to understand. It turns out that chaos theory answers a question that mankind has asked for millennia - how did we get here?

Prof. Jim Al-Khalili tackles the biggest subject of all, the universe. Through a series of critical observations and experiments that revolutionised our understanding of our world Jim guides us through the greatest cosmic detective story of all. He takes us from the beginning of the universe to the end time and answers the question: where did the universe come from and how will it end?

Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at how we have created machines that can simulate, augment, and even outperform the human mind - and why we shouldn't let this spook us. He reveals the story of the pursuit of AI, the emergence of machine learning and the recent breakthroughs brought about by artificial neural networks. He shows how AI is not only changing our world but also challenging our very ideas of intelligence and consciousness. Along the way, we'll investigate spam filters, meet a cutting-edge chatbot, look at why a few altered pixels makes a computer think it's looking at a trombone rather than a dog and talk to Demis Hassabis, who heads DeepMind and whose stated mission is to 'solve intelligence, and then use that to solve everything else'. Stephen Hawking remarked 'AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. Or the worst'. Jim argues that AI is a potent new tool that should enhance our lives, not replace us.

Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the release of radiation there, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nuclear power is safe. He begins in Japan, where he meets some of the tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated from the exclusion zone. He travels to an abandoned village just outside the zone to witness a nuclear clean-up operation. Jim draws on the latest scientific findings from Japan and from the previous explosion at Chernobyl to understand how dangerous the release of radiation is likely to be and what that means for our trust in nuclear power.

Lying on the remote north west coast of England is one of the most secret places in the country - Sellafield, the most controversial nuclear facility in Britain. Now, Sellafield are letting nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili and the television cameras in to discover the real story. Inside, Jim encounters some of the most dangerous substances on earth, reveals the nature of radiation and even attempts to split the atom. He sees inside a nuclear reactor, glimpses one of the rarest elements in the world - radioactive plutonium - and even subjects living tissue to deadly radiation. Ultimately, the film reveals Britain's attempts - past, present and future - to harness the almost limitless power of the atom.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates the amazing science of gravity. As well sculpting our universe, gravity also affects our weight, height and even the rate at which we age.

With input from an eclectic mix of scientists, engineers, sportspeople (and about thirty thousand snails) the film focuses on the many incarnations of speed and how it affects us all on land, sea, sky, space and even in our thoughts.

Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries.