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Every Breath We Take: Understanding Our Atmosphere

Gabrielle Walker tells the remarkable story of how we discovered that the air around us is not just empty space, it is full of hidden wonders.

The air around us is not just empty space; it is an integral part of the chemistry of life. Plants are made from carbon dioxide, nitrogen nourishes the soil and oxygen gives us the energy we need to keep our hearts pumping and our brains alive. But how did we come to understand what air is made of? How did we come to know that this invisible stuff around us contains anything at all?

Gabrielle Walker tells the remarkable story of the quest to understand the air. It's a tale of heroes and underdogs, chance encounters and sheer blind luck that spans the entire history of science. It began as a simple desire to further our knowledge of the natural world, but it ended up uncovering raw materials that have shaped our modern world, unravelling the secrets of our own physiology and revealing why we are here at all.

1 hour

Last on

Thu 6 Jun 2019 01:30

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Music Played

  • The Cinematic Orchestra

    To Build A 成人快手

Operation Cloud Lab: Secrets of the Skies (成人快手 Two)

Operation Cloud Lab: Secrets of the Skies (成人快手 Two)
A team of scientists take to the skies in one of the world's largest airships, for a unique exploration of Earth's most precious and mysterious environment - the atmosphere.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Gabrielle Walker
Producer Laura Mulholland
Director Laura Mulholland
Executive Producer Jonathan Renouf

Broadcasts