Seasons & Episodes
The Trigger Effect
Both the beginning and the end of the story are here. The end is our present dependence on complex technological network
Death In The Morning
How did a test of gold's purity revolutionize the world 2500 years ago and lead to the atomic bomb? Standardizing precio
Distant Voices
Telecommunications exist because the Normans wore stirrups at the Battle of Hastings- a simple advance that caused a rev
Faith in Numbers
Each development in the organization of systems (political, economic, mechanical, electronic)influences the next, by log
The Wheel of Fortune
The power to see into the future with computers originally rested with priest-astronomers who knew the proper times to p
Thunder In The Skies
A dramatically colder climate gripped Europe during the 13th century profoundly affecting the course of history for the
The Long Chain
Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controll
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
When Napoleon marched huge forces across Europe, he needed an efficient way to store provisions. A Frenchman preserved s
Countdown
What happens when you combine a carbon arc light, a billiard ball coating, a spoked wheel and consecutive images? Motion
Yesterday, Tomorrow, and You
"Why did we do it this way?" Essential moments from the previous programs are reviewed to illustrate the common factors
Revolutions
What do all these things have in common—three grandfathers' lifetimes, two revolutions, 1750 Cornish steam engines for
Sentimental Journeys
What do these have in common – Freud, lifestyle crisis, electric shock therapy, hypnotherapy, magnetism, phrenology, p
Getting it Together
James Burke explains the relationship between hot air balloons and laughing gas, and goes on to surgery, hydraulic-water
Whodunit?
This episode starts with a billiard ball and ends with a billiard ball. Along the way, Burke examines Georgius Agricola'
Something for Nothing
How do space shuttle landings start with the vacuum which was forbidden by the Church? Burke takes us on an adventure wi
Echoes of the Past
The past in this case starts with the tea in Dutch-ruled India, examines the Japanese tea ceremony, Zen Buddhism, porcel
Photo Finish
Another series of discoveries examined by Burke includes Eastman Kodak's Brownie, the disappearing elephant scare of 186
Separate Ways
Burke shows how to get from sugar to atomic weapons by two totally independent paths. The first involves African slaves,
High Times
The connection between polyethylene and Big Ben is a few degrees of separation, so let us recount them: polyethylene, ra
Deja Vu
James Burke provides evidence that history does repeat itself by examining the likes of black and white movies, conquist
New Harmony
A dream of utopia is followed from microchips to Singapore, from the transistor to its most important element, germanium
Hot Pickle
Burke starts out in a spice market in Istanbul where you can find hot pickle, recounts the taking of Constantinople by t
The Big Spin
The Big Spin is what California's lottery TV show is called. And lottery being a game of chance, from here Burke takes u
Bright Ideas
Gin and tonic was invented to combat malaria in British colonies like Java, which leads us to Geneva, where cleanliness
Making Waves
A permanent wave in ladies' hair is aided by curlers, and this leads us to explore borax, taking us to Switzerland, Joha
Routes
Jethro Tull, a sick English lawyer, recuperates sipping wine and contributes the hoe to help fix farming problems. Farm
One Word
The one word that changed everything was "filioque", but we must make a trip to Constantinople, visit the Renaissance, m
Sign Here
Murphy's Law says you need insurance from Lloyd's of London, so pack your bags to study international law and protect yo
Better Than the Real Thing
This episode starts in the 1890s with bicycles and bloomers and then takes a look at boots, zippers, sewing machines, an
Flexible Response
A whimsical look at the myth of the English longbow, Robin Hood, sheep, the need to drain land with windmills, the effec
Feedback
Electronic agents on the internet and wartime guns use feedback techniques discovered in the first place by Claude Berna
What's in a Name
Remember the cornflakes from last episode? Because corncobs make adhesives to bond carborundum discovered by Edward Good
Drop the Apple
At the Smithsonian, we learn of electric crystals that help Pierre and Marie Curie discover what they call radium, and t
An Invisible Object
Black holes in space, seen by the Hubble Telescope, brought into space with hydrazine fuel, which was a byproduct of fun
Life is No Picnic
Instant coffee gets off the ground in World War II and Jeeps lead to nylons and stocking machines smashed by Luddites, w
Elementary Stuff
Alfred Russel Wallace, who studied beetles, Oliver Lodge and telegraphy, a radio designed by Reginald Fessenden, which w
A Special Place
Professor Sir Alec Jeffries of Leicester University in England develops DNA profiling and schlieren photography used by
Fire from the Sky
Due to continental drift and Alfred Wegener's passion for mirages, magic images from the sister of King Arthur, whose ch
Hit the Water
Thanks to napalm, made with palm oil, also used for margarine, stiffened with a process using kieselguhr that comes from
In Touch
Starting from an attempt for cheaper fusion power using superconductivity, which was discovered by Onnes, with liquid ga
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