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Stargazing

In one of the most exciting weeks of the astronomical calendar, professor Brian Cox looks to the heavens, exploring the skies live on air in a special TV event.

In his own inimitable fashion, Brian shows how anyone can be an astronomer, as he encourages the audience to set off on their own journey of discovery.

From the South African Large Telescope (one of the strongest telescopes in the world), Brian interacts live with the audience at home to bring incredible images from two stunning events, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower and the spectacularly rare Partial Solar Eclipse.

Throughout, he answers questions, using demonstrations and real-time astronomical images to guide the nation's amateur astronomers across the skies.

VAA

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Productions

Men Of Rock

Professor Iain Stewart traces the story of how the landscape of Scotland revealed to the world how the planet works.

A band of pioneer geologists in Scotland were the first to work out the true age of the Earth, measure earthquakes, understand supervolcanoes, discover the ice ages and explain how continents move around the surface of the planet.

This new three-part series takes us through the latest science about the Earth and shows how these early mavericks and visionaries came up with revolutionary ideas that changed scientific understanding of the world forever.

HM

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Productions, Scotland

Arctic With Bruce Parry

Bruce Parry returns with a new series set in the spectacular wilderness of the Arctic, to explore the dramatic changes its people are experiencing.

Bruce immerses himself in the remote communities of this freezing world to learn how they live and how their ancient ways of life may be about to change forever.

Visiting one of the last surviving outposts of Inuit culture in Greenland, he learns how new technologies such as global positioning systems have been adopted alongside traditional hunting techniques.

He joins the Yukon's northernmost community, where culling animals during the caribou migration is coupled with the need for conservation, and learns what effect the relatively recent fall of Communism had on reindeer herders in Siberia.

Bruce will also discover how much the modern world has encroached on Arctic communities and asks whether, as globalisation and consumerism takes hold, such people will continue to survive.

TD

Indus Films production

Space Dive

Fifty years ago, Colonel Joe Kittinger became an American hero when he performed a 102,000 feet freefall from the edge of space. Since then, many have tried to jump further and fall faster but none have succeeded; many have died in the attempt.

This summer, that boundary will be tested again as Joe works with elite base-jumper Felix Baumgartner to go higher and fall further in an attempt to become the first person ever to break the sound barrier in free fall. Like Joe before him, Felix has been trained physically and psychologically with the US Air Force and the world’s most qualified space technologists by his side.

Space Dive tells the story of this record breaking attempt, giving a gripping and dramatic account of Joe and Felix's struggle against the extremes of nature and a remarkable and revealing insight into the intricate, life-or-death world of space science.

VAA

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Productions

Spice Trail

Kate Humble goes on the trail of some of the world's most valuable spices revealing their history, trade, mythology and usage.

Taking a journey from the ancient saffron fields of Essex to the original source of nutmeg and cloves in the Far East, Kate reveals the gradual and progressive exploration of the world in the great age of Western expansion.

This is not just a story of discovery and the history of spice; it also reveals the history of navigational science that allowed explorers to pinpoint the location of the trading posts that would provide access to the spice gardens of the globe.

Kate travels from the UK to Mexico, to Spain and the Middle East, through India and Indonesia to a remote set of islands at the far ends of the known world as it was in the 15th and 16th centuries, revealing the gradual and progressive exploration of the world eastwards as she discovers how spices are grown, used and traded today.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Front Desk Publicity

A Lion Television production

Know Your Stuff

What goes into the everyday "stuff" we all rely on, from cleaning products to cosmetics?

Know Your Stuff is an addictive new series about the unseen chemistry of modern homes, revealing the ingenious and surprising science behind everyday chemicals and offering a fascinating insight into the products that make up the domestic world.

VAA

A Shine production

Horizon

Horizon returns with some of the most fascinating and important scientific stories from around the world, bringing the latest topical discoveries and in-depth answers to long-asked questions.

Dr Kevin Fong sets out to discover how medics are cheating death to bring patients back to life using extreme cooling.

Horizon also reports on a ten-year study into the dramatic changes taking place in the world's oceans – from the effects on coral reefs to the discovery of new species in the deep.

The series also ventures to the far frontiers of physics to ask "what happened before the Big Bang?"

VAA

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Productions