Ascent Of Man – BBC

The Ascent of Man is a thirteen-part documentary television series produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films first transmitted in 1973, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. Intended as a series of “personal view” documentaries in the manner of Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series Civilisation, the series received acclaim for Bronowski’s highly informed but eloquently simple analysis, his long unscripted monologues and its extensive location shoots.

Mechanical Universe

The Mechanical Universe… And Beyond, is a 52-part telecourse filmed at the California Institute of Technology, and produced by Caltech and INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications (a non-profit consortium of California community colleges). The series introduces university level physics, covering topics from Copernicus to quantum mechanics. The series, produced in 1985 by Caltech and INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, uses historical dramatizations and visual aides to explain physics concepts. The latter were state of the art at the time of production: almost 8 hours of computer animation were done by computer graphics pioneer Jim Blinn. Each episode opens and closes with a “phantom” lecture by Caltech professor David Goodstein. Though more than 2 decades old, the series is often used as a supplemental aide for its clear explanation of phenomena such as special relativity even today.