Le chagrin des animaux : mythe ou réalité ?

What forms might life take in the Solar System and beyond? In the Academy's newest original planetarium show, see how a deeper understanding of Earth might help us locate other living worlds, light years away.

Portrait of Hermann Heinzel.

The 1977 discovery of RNA splicing by Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, Kentucky farm boy turned Nobel-prize winning scientist, set the stage for a revolution in molecular biology, enabling research into a new class of medicines predicated on recombinant DNA techniques ranging from the development of synthetic insulin and human growth hormone to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The first American space station Skylab is found in pieces scattered in Western Australia. Putting these pieces back together and re-tracing the Skylab program back to its very conception reveals the cornerstone of human space exploration.

Before the internet. Before social media. Before breaking news. The victims of Thalidomide had to rely on something even more extraordinary to fight their corner: Investigative journalism. This is the story of how Harold Evans fought and won the battle of his and many other lives.

Horizon: Which Universe Are We In?

A crash course in the professional and scientific work related to the field of venomous herpetology. The film covers diverse topics, including biochemistry, biology, law and public policy, conservation, venom collection, animal husbandry, antivenom production, emergency medicine, veterinary medicine, toxicology and toxinology. The film follows the personal and working lives of prominent experts in the field, beginning with their childhood interest through their professional careers, with particular emphasis on the sciences related to their work.

My Stellar Tale is a short-documentary about the biggest Planetarium in Bulgaria. A story about the night sky, the transience of Life and the relationship between man and machine.

Explains that heat is really a form of motion, a form of kinetic energy and that it can be converted to other forms of energy and transferred through conduction, convection and radiation. Shows practical examples in which heat preserves lives and makes daily living more convenient.

With input from an eclectic mix of scientists, engineers, sportspeople (and about thirty thousand snails) the film focuses on the many incarnations of speed and how it affects us all on land, sea, sky, space and even in our thoughts.

An epic documentary film that sends nine scientists to extraordinary parts of the world to uncover unexpected answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions. How did life begin? What is time? What is consciousness? How much do we really know? By introducing researchers from diverse backgrounds for the first time, then dropping them into new, immersive field work they previously hadn’t tackled, the film pushes the boundaries of how science storytelling is approached. What emerges is a deeply human trip to the foundations of discovery and a powerful reminder that the unanswered questions are the most crucial ones to pose. Directed by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ian Cheney and advised by world-renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog, The Most Unknown is an ambitious look at a side of science never before shown on screen.

Melvin and Buddy are two space-exploring pups on a mission. Scarfing down facts like dog biscuits is their plan, but they can't learn about all the topics that interest them without some help. That's where Professor Brain comes in. He's the T-Rex with the mega brain-flex. Climb aboard for all the intergalactic fact-finding fun.

A psychedelic odyssey into the fabric of the universe, guided by a filmmaker’s immersive practical experiments that transcend into a deeply hypnotic audio-visual experience of awe and human connection to the natural world.

La Station spatiale internationale - Missions à haut risque

The Voronezh Nuclear Power Plant reactor; Novgorod’s archaeological excavations. Archaeologist Boris Rybakov on importance of historical science. Lenin’s Materialism & Empirio-Criticism. The first university dept of natural compound chemistry in the Soviet Union, located in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR. Agriculturalist Pavel Lukyanenko develops winter wheat varieties at Krasnodar Research Institute of Agriculture. French physicist Hubert Curien on USSR–France collaboration in nuclear physics. Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences: Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Niels Bohr; theoretical physicist Igor Tamm on nuclear transformations in planetary & meteoritic matter, study of the Moon in relation to the Earth’s evolution. Dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Sciences. Archival film, photographs, manuscripts, books, interviews from Academy members, explore its role in the development of science, economics, and its prominent figures throughout its history…

The discovery of neuroplasticity, the fact that thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains, even into old age, is one of the most important breakthroughs in our understanding of the brain in recent times. In The Brain That Changes Itself, Dr Norman Doidge explores the profound implications of the changing brain in a way that will permanently alter the way we look at human possibility and human nature. The documentary examines a blind man who sinks a basketball; a woman with half a brain who leads a normal life; learning disorders, strokes and brain traumas that are improved and cured; and chronic pain that is alleviated. The vast expanse of the brain's possibility is still unrealized.

In northern Iraq lie the ruins of a 3,000-year-old city, Nimrud, once the capital of the powerful Assyrian Empire. In 1988, archaeologists conducted excavations beneath one of the palaces and uncovered a vaulted room filled with bronze cups, lamps, and ceramic jars, which led to an untouched chamber laden with precious objects. A stone sarcophagus, still intact, contained an impressive amount of jewelry: the treasures of this burial site surpassed those found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. The bodies of two women, placed one on top of the other, were also exhumed. Presumably of high rank, who were they?

In this two-part Channel 4 series, Professor Richard Dawkins challenges what he describes as 'a process of non-thinking called faith'. He describes his astonishment that, at the start of the 21st century, religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth. Science, based on scepticism, investigation and evidence, must continuously test its own concepts and claims. Faith, by definition, defies evidence: it is untested and unshakeable, and is therefore in direct contradiction with science. In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, in fact, says Dawkins, they bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, he argues, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress to become more enlightened and more tolerant.

A giant ball of gas and raw energy with a temperature of up to 15 million degrees, the sun is the origin of life on earth and influences an infinite number of natural phenomena. This documentary is dedicated to the search for the significance of our home star for mankind, science and nature. Researchers at the American Space Agency NASA, the Canary Islands observatories, and the hottest and coldest places on earth share their insights. We can expect an emotional journey through science and history, peppered with human stories, at the end of which the complex bandwidth of life is revealed. Never before in the history of mankind has it been more important to uncover the secrets of the sun. Because for our earth, the sun is not just any star. It is the ultimate star.

Mexico, San Cristobal de Las Casas, 1982. Ana Olalde replaces the city, science, and pollution with people, art, and nature.