Éclipse 73

A short documentary about an engineer in a Chilean observatory.

A short documentary interviewing a renown astronomer and astrophysicist.

A short documentary interviewing an astronomer.

A short documentary of filmmaker Patricio Guzmán interviewing local astronomers.

Infinitude is a meditation on the cosmic evolution of matter and energy over time. Experimental filmmaking techniques such as time-lapse, high-speed, and stop-motion photography were used to photograph handmade props, fluid dynamics, and angular momentum. Infinitude is a handmade representation of the exponential growth of complexity in the cosmos.

The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn’t digital, it’s biological. A breakthrough called CRISPR gives us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing disease, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. This documentary is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the genetic engineers who are testing its limits.

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

Die Sonne

Documentary telling the inside story of low-cost airlines - a tale of big characters and big money. Ryanair's Michael O'Leary and EasyJet's Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou opened up new frontiers in the aviation industry as their airlines offered cheap flights to a vast range of popular and alternative destinations. The programme follows O'Leary as he flies to Poland, takes an EasyJet flight to Moscow and a joins a group of lads travelling to Riga to sample the low-cost airline experience. As the cost of flying keeps increasing, how much further can these companies grow? Stelios, EasyJet's biggest shareholder, is trying to halt its expansion, while O'Leary has just placed a massive order for new planes.

With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases.

Following engineers and scientists on a groundbreaking mission as they build, test and launch the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful observatory ever constructed, and discovers the astonishing cosmological mysteries it will investigate.

They have no roots, no seeds, no flowers, but mosses show immense survival capacities and can suspend their biological activity for long periods. Today, researchers are exploring the exceptional resistance of these archaic organisms. British ecologists have even resurrected a "zombie" moss that has been trapped in the permafrost for 1,500 years. Associated with decay and disliked in Europe, mosses are deified in Japan. With 25,000 species worldwide, bryophytes - their scientific name - are the seat of real ecosystems, and can develop in inhospitable landscapes, through an extravagant reproduction cycle.

This documentary examines theories behind the creation of gamma ray bursts, destructive explosions in space that can wipe out entire star systems.

The loss of the Bill E. Gordon radio telescope has left a void in the world of radio science, the mountains that cradled it, and the hearts of many visitors and enthusiasts who appreciated the beautiful engineering marvel. It’s a difficult time for the scientists and those who grew up seeing the telescope every day in the fields of atmospheric science, planetary science, and Radio astronomy. Experience the legacy of a 57 year journey, from the small island of Puerto Rico to the deepest regions of the galaxy with the world's most powerful telescope.

Horizon: Which Universe Are We In?

Tma nad zlato

A history of the telescope and a look at the James Webb telescope, and at the universe through the eyes of scientists and telescopes since the beginning.

Are we becoming Plastic People? Our ground-breaking feature documentary investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made ends up ground down into "microplastics". These microscopic particles drift in the air, float in the water and sit in the soil. And now, leading scientists are finding them in our bodies: organs, blood, brain tissue and even the placentas of new mothers. What is the impact of these invisible invaders on our health? Ziya Tong, author and science journalist, makes it personal by visiting leading scientists and undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and on her body.

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.