Cosmos by Carl Sagan (Episode 1)

Today let's look back to one of the most popular and classic science documentaries of all time - Cosmos with Carl Sagan. But firstly let's look at some history behind this charming documentary.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan and Steve Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It covered a wide range of scientific themes, including the origin of life and our place in the universe.

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Ever since 1978 when Cosmos was produced it became famous for groundbreaking special effects and memorable soundtracks (including music by Vangelis). However, the real show stealer was Carl Sagan, who is one of only a few scientists who were truly popular outside the world of science. He was a truly amazing scholar who had an extraordinary passion for science and a talent to pass it to the wide audience.

The show had 13 episodes covering a variety of subjects including planets, stars, universe formation, science in our society, evolution and others.

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Physics from the Past: Facts About Nuclear Weapons (1960)

In this edition of "Physics from the Past" let's check out a slightly newer video called "Stay Safe, Stay Strong: Facts About Nuclear Weapons". This instructional video from 1960 tells the story behind nuclear weapons, their transportation, safety and instructions in case of a nuclear war.

As most of these old videos this one is really informative and even though it doesn't have any fancy animation (or  other stuff like that new documentaries usually have) it delivers the information in a simple yet efficient manner. The video also covers the basics of nuclear physics and how it is used to operate a nuclear bomb. Enjoy!



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The Path of Measuring Cosmic Acceleration

A couple of days ago I added a lecture at the University of Uppsala by one of the Nobel Prize (2011) winners Saul Perlmutter. So why don't we check out another part of these lectures at the same university by Brian P. Schmidt (who also shared the 2011 prize). The lectures focuses on observational astronomy and techniques used in measuring the acceleration of the universe. So enjoy!

For more physics articles, videos and other stuff feel free to subscribe. 

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Measuring the Acceleration of the Universe

I think it's about time to update the video content of the blog with a great lecture. Here we have one of the Nobel Prize winners Saul Perlmutter, who talks about the process of measuring the acceleration of the universe (for which he with his colleagues received the 2011 Nobel Prize).

The quality is not that good, but it's a great lecture nonetheless. So enjoy and thanks for visiting the blog!

* For more videos, lectures, articles, news and all that good stuff please subscribe to the blog or the RSS feed. Cheers

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Physics from the Past: White Magic

So here we have another amazing old science video. This time it's about the wonders of light. I really liked the title. Anyway, this video is from 1940 and it covers the basics of physics of light and its applications. By the way I really like the opening, it sounds more like an opening of an old classic movie than a science documentary.

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Physics from the Past: Electromagnetism in Silence

So here we have something special. It's an educational video back from the late 1920s about electromagnetism. It's the first silent physics video and by far the oldest I've seen so far.

So it's basically basics of electromagnetism, transformators, electricity transportation and stuff like that. It's hard to believe but it's basically the same stuff that we learn in school these days, even some equipment reminds me of  high school experiments. So but be sure to check this one out as it is really hard to find such old physics videos these days. Cheers

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Physics from the Past: X-Rays

So we're back with another edition of the Physics from the Past. This time let's look at this old video about the mysterious form of electromagnetic radiation called X-Rays. The video is back from the 1940, and anybody who has seen some of the old school movies back from that period will notice that the quality is really good. Also I can't help but notice that the video has a quite interesting atmosphere - it feels like something from an episode of the Twilight Zone. Anyway, I think these old videos are really good, as even though they don't have flashy effects or modern animation, they focus on explaining the scientific ideas with simplicity and accuracy. So enjoy and don't forget to comment and subscribe. Cheers

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Physics from the Past: The Mystery of Time 1957

Hey folks! As you all might know I'm a big fan of science documentaries. So as I was browsing the internet I've found some interesting old physics & science documentaries. So I decided to do this mini series of old science videos and documentaries.

The first one is called The Mystery of Time and it's back from the 1957. As all stuff from the 50s this documentary has a certain style and one of those classic elegantly sounding narrators. The beginning actually reminds me of the original Twilight Zone show. The quality is relatively good and even though they don't explain much about the nature of time, entropy or any other usual stuff that you hear in such documentaries it's still quite fun and interesting experience.

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Brave New World Episode 2 - Medicine

In the 2nd episode of Brave New World  scientists tell a story of the constant battle with killer diseases, the newest advances in medical science and how they change our lives. For more Channel 4 documentaries check out their youtube channel below.

4oDDocumentaries

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Richard Feynman - No Ordinary Genius

Richard Phillips Feynman  was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics and theoretical physics in general, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.

Throughout his life Feynman became one of the most famous scientist. Besides being a great theoretical physicist, he was also a celebrity due to his unique charisma and an ability to explain complicated physics concepts to simple people. 

Here we have another great Horizon documentary, which is dedicated to the life and scientific achievements of Richard Feynman. Enjoy!

Thanks for SevenSevenSevenaka for uploading this!

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Shocking! Real Dogs Died and Were Resurrected in Soviet Russia (1940)

This disturbing film records the successful experiments in the resuscitation of life to dead animals (dogs), as conducted by Dr. S.S. Bryukhonenko at the Institute of Experimental Physiology and Therapy, Voronezh, U.S.S.R

This video was filmed in 1940 and it has that bizzare (it reminds me of those Lost orientation videos from Dharma stations) yet relatively good quality. The video itself is really shocking, as it shows the heart and the lungs of a dog, outside the body, connected to tubes, which support the blod flow. And the best part is when a real dog head without a body is connected to tubes and the head is actually alive - it reacts to touch, smells and even light.

Another amazing part is when the doctors stop the heart of the dog and the resurrect it.Yeah it's like the experiments of a real life doctor Frankenstein...
 

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What is Reality ??

Hey, I found this great BBC documentary called "What is Reality?". It's about the various theories and experiments of physics which could help to answer this question. It involves a lot of great stuff about quantum mechanics (for example the famous double-slit experiment), particle physics and some cosmology.

I really like that it illustrated the whole bizarre side of quantum mechanics and the way it changes our understanding of reality. So check this out here or on YouTube. Thanks for reading!

PS. do any of you guys know how to write eqautions in Blogger? I would appreciate if you'd share this knowledge ;]

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Brainwashing Music?

Subliminal stimuli (pronounced /sʌbˈlɪmɨnəl/, literally "below threshold"), contrary to supraliminal stimuli or "above threshold", are any sensory stimuli below an individual's absolute threshold for conscious perception. In human language this means that it is possible to hide secret messages on video (or audio) that appear to quickly for you to notice, but you still "feel" them unconsciously.



The whole idea behind the subliminal messages is really fascinating. It's amazing that many great songs might be hiding dark secrets which are just waiting to be uncovered. So I decided to share some great compilations of brainwashing music with subliminal messages that I've found on youtube.com.

Thanks!

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Watch Science Programs at BBC iPlayer Live

So once again I found another great way to watch your favourite documentaries about science and all that interesting stuff. Yeah of curse you can watch them on youtube, but there's another great website where you can find high quality science videos. Also you can watch them live.

The website is called BBC iPlayer and it contains a variety of programs as well as live BBC 1 - 4 channels. So you can basically find everything on this website starting with your favourite TV show ending with amazing Horizon documentaries.

So thanks for reading and I hope this will be useful to you.

BBC iPlayer

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Paranormal Pictures and Videos Debunked

So I guess you can say that I have to much free time on my hands, because I keep on watching these crazy videos on youtube. The great thing about youtube though is that sometimes you stumble upon some great stuff.

As you might know I enjoy various paranormal pictures and videos. But what I enjoy even more is a good debunktion of fake stuff. Thus I really enjoyed Captain Disillusion videos. Captain Disillusion is this guy who is quite famous among the sceptic community. He has debunked a variety of famous paranormal pictures and videos. Also his videos are really fun.

So if you're bored don't hesitate to watch these videos. They are hell of a fun, especially for fans of the paranormal or sceptics. So here's the link to Captain Disillusion youtube channel.

Thanks for reading!

PS. Just to get a taste of it, here's the newest video by Captain D:

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