TV and Radio Guide w/c 25th February 2013

This week we’ve got meteors, bears and viruses, more of Attenborough’s Living Planet and a genius whose pre-eminent sewer development helped rid London of cholera. Yes it’s another Science TV and Radio guide, collated this week by @a_weatherall. Straight to the picks of the week – loads of great TV, but both Sarah and I have chosen radio : mine is the documentary about the life of Buckminster Fuller, and Sarah’s pick is Science Cafe on the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA. The pdf and spreadsheet copies of the guide are at the bottom of this post.

This week’s online video collection is literally out of this world. This week has been a fantastic opportunity to view the ISS from the UK with some very bright passes. Chris Hadfield is one of NASA’s astronauts in the ISS and this week he took part in a Google+ Hangout to answer questions from the people of Earth :). The good stuff starts 30 minutes in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8LI5JiWEfs. The amazing thing for me is that video communication technology has finally got to a point where we can have these conversations. @Cmdr_Hadfield also posts pictures of earth taken from the observation module on twitter, some of which are absolutely beautiful:

Tonight’s finale: Full Moon rising. So near, and yet…
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 30, 2013

And he has posted some great videos about life on the ISS: 

• Chris Hadfields Space Kitchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZx0RIV0wss
• nicely juxtaposed with Nail Clipping in Space: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xICkLB3vAeU
• and keeping those hands clean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z2KNDGNnlc
• how to play guitar in zero G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLRunqi1mDM
• and his composition Jewel in the Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YufsbE4-jmY if you like that sort of thing 🙂
• and you’ve got to see Captain Kirk chatting to Commander Hadfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ro4zkw-LA
  

Here’s the playlist from this current expedition from the Canadian space Agency: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUaartJaon3LV-ZQ4J3bNQj4VNVG2ByIG and also

Sunita Williams was a previous commander who left the space station in November and she posted a wonderful tour of the space station on the day she left: it’s fascinating how the orientation changes are so natural to them, but disorienting when watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k.

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TV and Radio Guide w/c 18th February 2013

It’s half term (or half term has just finished) and there is more great science on the TV and Radio with this week’s guide collated by @MrsDrSarah. There’s not much for the chemists this week however check out  one of the video picks below for the week to make up for this. Sarah’s pick of the week is Science Cafe on Tuesday (all about digestion which will be great for  GCSE biologists) and mine is Costing the Earth on Wednesday which will be looking at generating energy from our household waste – both definitely worth a listen for GCSE scientists.

Other highlights include: a discussion about ice ages on In Our Time, radiophonic genius: Delia Derbyshire, Horizon going  very small, what determines an organism’s sex, and Brian looks at why our world is such a suitable haven for life.

The online videos of the week are brand new: the first is by MinutePhysics and carries on the theme of last week’s Horizon: What is the Universe . Henry Reich produces some fantastic videos to share with your A Level physicists. The second is by the prolific Hank Green who has just started a new Crash Course: Chemistry which starts by defining the nucleus. Check out the rest of the Crash Courses by Hank and his brother John here

TV and Radio Guide w/c 11th February 2013

Horizon: How big is the Universe?

It’s a relatively quiet week for science on the TV and Radio this week. The re-run of Life on Earth at 4:15 every day is drawing to a close and picking up with The Living Planet. These are well worth a watch if you haven’t seen them (I have them all on DVD so can peruse at my leisure).  My pick of the week is Horizon: How Big is the Universe. Our Philosophy & Ethics department are teaching scientific and religious explanations for the universe at the moment, so this may be one for them to look at. 

TV and Radio Guide w/c 4th February 2013

Wow, we’re in February already and about 10% of the year gone. There’s more great science in the TV and radio guide this week (collated by @MrsDrSarah). Sarah’s pick of the week is Science Cafe on Radio 4 (Tues, 6:30pm) for GCSE and A level chemists – considering how our growing reliance on modern technology is creating a shortage of critical elements.  My pick of the week is Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom on CBBC (Wed 6:15pm). This week’s episode is about one of the fathers of Physics: Sir Isaac Newton. I am really enjoying this show and pleased that CBBC have made the decision to put such informative TV onto the schedule. They’re doing a great job of combining the history of scientific discovery with the fun and wonder of science; perfect for early KS3.