Connections

Both the beginning and the end of the story are here. The end is our present dependence on complex technological networks illustrated by the NYC power...

How did a test of gold's purity revolutionize the world 2500 years ago and lead to the atomic bomb? Standardizing precious metal in coins stimulated t...

Telecommunications exist because the Normans wore stirrups at the Battle of Hastings- a simple advance that caused a revolution in the increasingly ex...

Each development in the organization of systems (political, economic, mechanical, electronic)influences the next, by logic, by genius, by chance, or b...

The power to see into the future with computers originally rested with priest-astronomers who knew the proper times to plant and harvest. The constell...

A dramatically colder climate gripped Europe during the 13th century profoundly affecting the course of history for the next seven centuries. The chan...

Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic trade routes. Comp...

When Napoleon marched huge forces across Europe, he needed an efficient way to store provisions. A Frenchman preserved sterilized food in empty champa...

What happens when you combine a carbon arc light, a billiard ball coating, a spoked wheel and consecutive images? Motion pictures! Complex and sometim...

"Why did we do it this way?" Essential moments from the previous programs are reviewed to illustrate the common factors that make for change. Will the...