TV Guide w/c 21st January 2013

A very quick post today. Sorry it’s so late; my computer has been out of action most of the  day.

Sarah has collated the guide this week and here are her picks of the week:

My pick of the week this week was really difficult.  Obviously everyone should be watching Brian Cox’s new series The Wonders of Life, but for A level biologists students, two Radio 4 iPlayer programmes were fantastic. Pop Up Economics is a 15 minute introduction to innovation which discusses why the British Olympic Cycling Team are the best in the world, and why if you’re told ‘No’ in science you maybe should go ahead and do it anyway.  Then Adam Rutherford’s two-part documentary on the natural history of Sexual Nature was great, and one that I’m going to set as snow work for my A level biologists if I’m stuck at home tomorrow.  Plus it features #ASEChat hero Prof Steve Jones :).

Sarah has also suggested http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0110dsc – The Story of Physics from the BBC Science Club  as the video of the week. A good introduction to Physics for KS3/4.

TV Guide w/c 14th January 2013

John Gurdon in Stockholm to collect his Nobel Prize in 2012 (Source: Wikipedia).

There is a bit of a biology focus for this week’s TV. The Pick of the Week is John Gurdon on Discovery (this is an edited version of Jim Al-Khalili’s – The Life Scientific) on Monday evening – @MrsDrSarah is setting it as recommended listening for her GCSE biologists ahead of their B2 exam later this month. A recommendation from @Bio_Joe that I missed last week: Baby Makers – The Fertility Clinic (on BBC iPlayer till Thursday), looks at the process of artificial fertilisation. My pick is Africa which continues to amaze with its beautiful footage; this week’s episode examines the biodiversity in the rainforests of The Congo. And those of you with Sky – don’t miss Galapagos (next showing tonight at 7:30 on Sky 1).

To balance the biology on TV we’ve got two (four actually) recommended videos for the chemists among you to watch :  

• This video features some lesser known but incredibly useful elements and Prof Andrea Sella who is an brilliant demonstrator. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ul8CmUkO4E 
• If you or your students missed the Christmas lectures this year I can highly recommend them. A fantastic introduction to Chemistry pitched at GCSE level and now available on the RI Channel website. http://www.richannel.org/christmas-lectures/2012/peter-wothers
  

And don’t forget if you missed Stargazing Live, you can watch Stargazing not Live this week on iPlayer.