DOcumentries

Top 10 Images of Hubble Space Telescope

This is NASA/ESA Hubblecast 57: Top 10 Images – Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Unveiled.
Producing the stunning pictures that Hubble is famous for isn’t straightforward. Unlike your typical digital camera, which automatically sets things like contrast, exposures, colour balance and so on, Hubble is not optimised to produce aesthetically pleasing pictures. It’s optimised for science. Turning these scientific images into amazing images of the cosmos is not easy, as all of these variables have to be tweaked by hand. That’s called image processing — and it is a mixture of science and aesthetics.

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity – Stanford

This is a complete course in General Theory of Relativity taught by Leonard Susskind, the Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson with Stephen Colbert

This is a great talk with Stephen Colbert and Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the Kimberley Academy in Montclair, New Jersey.
Stephen Colbert is a smart science fan and often features great science book authors and scientists on his show, The Colbert Report. I also appreciate his funny takes on scientific topics such as tissue engineered meat, the LHC and more!
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has appeared on The Colbert Report six times. What a boon for the world of science that Colbert is willing to feature science and science personalities who will make science seem enjoyable for the general public.

TED – David MacKay: A reality check on renewables

David MacKay gives a lecture about renewable sources of energy and what their problems are. David MacKay tours the basic mathematics that show worrying limitations on our sustainable energy options and explains why we should pursue them anyway.

Jim Al-Khalili – Skeptics in the Pub

An evening with Jim Al-Khalili, eminent physicist and science communicator, discussing the possibility of time travel and parallel universes. This illuminating talk was set up by Skeptics in the Pub, a not-for-profit organisation that does its upmost to spread knowledge and skepticism around the country.

The Fabric of the Cosmos

The Fabric of the Cosmos, a four-hour documentary series based on the book by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, the author of The Elegant Universe.
In each of the four episodes, Brian Greene explores a different subject of physics research: Space, Time, Quantum physics and the Multiverse theory.

Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons, is a documentary about critical thinking. Explaining how the vast majority of the population will accept dragons, or their logical equivalents, than to actually try to learn and understand the principle of how things actually work, this documentary is an excellent introduction to critical thinking.
Here Be Dragons is written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast, author of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena, and Executive Producer of The Skeptologists.

TED – Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop”.
Basically it’s bringing computing to the physical world, the computer (cellphone) hanging around your neck can use anything in front of it as input and output devices – a piece of paper for example.

Richard Feynman: Fun To Imagine

The great American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman sits in an armchair and talks about some of the wonders of the world. Originally a BBC TV series called ‘Fun to Imagine’, broadcast in 1983.
The 4th part, Magnets and the question ‘Why?’, is especially enlightening, as it’s the question that lies in the very core of scientific inquiry.