The Ascent of Man

IMDb TVDB Trailer
  • :
  • : 13
  • : 8
  • BBC Two
  • Documentary History

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1
1x1
Lower Than the Angels
Episode overview
The following episodes examine intellectual, cultural, and scientific breakthroughs in man's four-million-year evolution. Shows importance of new ideas and how they transcend other .. show full overview
1x2
The Harvest of the Seasons
Episode overview
In the long spring following the Ice Ages man develops agriculture and domesticates animals, imposing his will on wild wheat and horses. With the Neolithic cultivators come the mounted .. show full overview
1x3
The Grain in the Stone
Episode overview
Man splits a stone and reassembles the pieces to build a wall, a cathedral, a city. This program is about man, the architect, builder, and sculptor. Shots of Greek temples of Paestum, .. show full overview
1x4
The Hidden Structure
Episode overview
From ancient Oriental metallurgy, through mystical alchemy this program traces the roots of chemistry. Shang bronze craftsmen and Samurai sword smiths are the starting point for a .. show full overview
1x5
Music of the Spheres
Episode overview
Program covers the evolution of math. Pythagoras, father of Greek math, considered numbers the language of nature. Follows spread of Greek ideas through the Islamic Empire to Moorish .. show full overview
1x6
The Starry Messenger
Episode overview
Studies man's attempts to map the forces which move the planets. The static nature of South American astronomy is contrasted with ideas of Renaissance Europe. Traces the origins of the .. show full overview
1x7
The Majestic Clockwork
Episode overview
Newton and Einstein, the two giants of physics, imposed great systems of order on the world. This production illustrates the revolution that occurred when Einstein's theory of relativity turned Newton's elegant description of the universe inside out.
1x8
The Drive for Power
Episode overview
Program covers the industrial and political revolutions of the 18th century. Forces of nature were harnessed and the basics of political power shifted. Bronowski argues that in man's .. show full overview
1x9
The Ladder of Creation
Episode overview
From the countryside of Wales to the jungles of the Amazon, follows the stories of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin who had the same idea simultaneously - evolution by natural .. show full overview
1x10
World Within World
Episode overview
In the vaults of ancient Polish salt mines Bronowski embarks on a journey to the hidden world inside the atom. He traces the history of the men and the ideas that made 20th century physics the greatest achievement of the human imagination.
1x11
Knowledge or Certainty
Episode overview
Bronowski's statement on information and responsibility's a moral dilemma to scientists. Principle of certainty in physics applies to all knowledge. Examines implications of bombing .. show full overview
1x12
Generation Upon Generation
Episode overview
Math and physics brought revolution to man's ideas of life. From Mendel's work to discoveries of today, Bronowski unravels complex code of human inheritance. Sees sex as an instrument of .. show full overview
1x13
The Long Childhood
Episode overview
In this final program Bronowski - poet, playwright, mathematician, philosopher - draws together many threads of the series. He takes stock of man's complex, sometimes precarious, ascent. .. show full overview

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