The Ascent of Man

The programme follows the changes in Man as he marches out of Africa, through desert and ice age, to leave the print of his hand in a dark Spanish cav...

As the ice retreats and the land flowers, Man the hunter turns to agriculture, domesticating plant and animal, imposing his will on the wild wheat and...

The wandering nomads cease their migrations and settle in townships, learning new skills.

The programme follows the beginnings of chemistry: from the techniques of ancient metallurgy in China and Japan to the mystical searchings of the alch...

Mathematics is a way of describing the world that we see, hear and touch.

From the earliest times, Man has looked outwards from the earth and wondered at the movements of sun, stars and planets. The programme hinges on the c...

The universe of Newton, clear, English, stately, like the music and the great buildings of his century ticking away with a fine clockwork mechanism, w...

As political revolutions shook France and America, another quieter, yet more profound restructuring was taking place in Britain - the Industrial Revol...

How did life begin on earth? Dr Jacob Bronowski recounts the adventures of Alfred Russell Wallace, and how they triggered off the ideas of Charles Dar...

Dr Jacob Bronowski tells the story of the men and ideas that gave concrete expression to the invisible, intangible structure that lies beneath all mat...

Dr Jacob Bronowski considers how the great achievement of physics in the 20th century has been to show that absolute certainty, in science or outside...

Dr Jacob Bronowski follows the history of genetics, from the lonely experiments of Gregor Mendel to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Should we s...

From his home, Dr Jacob Bronowski takes stock of man's complex and often precarious ascent, drawing on experiences from his own lifetime.