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Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Season 1
Until recently, electricity was seen as a magical power. It could slay the living, revive the dead, and even bend the laws of nature. It is now the lifeblood of the modern world, fueling our lives and underpinning every aspect of technological advancement. Without it, we would be lost. Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force.
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - Spark
    December 15, 2011
    59min
    ALL
    In this episode, host Jim Al-Khalili shows what electricity actually is: a force created by the movement of charged particles like electrons. We'll also show how life creates and uses it, and tell the story of mankind's epic quest to do the same. We'll see how science learned to harness the power of electricity to build the modern world.
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  2. S1 E2 - The Age of Invention
    December 15, 2011
    59min
    ALL
    In episode two we travel back to a world full of excitement at the discovery of electricity. Jim will see how scientists finally realized that the almost supernatural phenomena of 'electricity' and 'magnetism' were linked. We'll show that by wielding the awesome new power of electromagnetism, Victorian scientists created the modern world.
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  3. S1 E3 - Revolutions and Revelations
    December 15, 2011
    59min
    ALL
    From radio waves bigger than a house, to gamma rays smaller than the nucleus of an atom, the electromagnetic spectrum is buzzing around us - but until recently we have only been aware of the tiny visual part of the spectrum. Jim shows in this episode that the discovery of the light spectrum drove some of the great names of modern physics - Curie, Faraday, Planck and Einstein.
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Details

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Subtitles
None available
Directors
Jon EastmanAlex FreemanTim Usborne
Producers
DCD Rights
Cast
Jim Al-Khalili
Studio
MagellanTV
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