Machine

A very human tech doc, uncovers the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of workers from around the world for companies including Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo. From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally, and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected. Who are the people in this shadow workforce? It brings their stories into the light. Lured by the promise of flexible work hours, independence, and control over time and money, workers from around the world have found a very different reality. Work conditions are often dangerous, pay often changes without notice, and workers can effectively be fired through deactivation or a bad rating. Through an engaging global cast of characters, it reveals how the magic of technology we are being sold might not be magic at all.

An accomplished molecular biologist moves out of the lab in a quest to make an encyclopedia documenting all the fruit fly species in North America.

Oil is a primary energy source in the world. Global oil consumption reached approximately 95 million barrels per day but oil fields' quality is constantly declining. A team of Russian scientists came up with more accurate, cheaper, and faster technology that can increase the oil production rate. After all, modern civilization is built in the way that 'to live well' means 'consume more oil'

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.

If you could create an immortal version of yourself, would you? Once the stuff of science fiction, A.I. experts now see it as possible. This feature documentary explores the latest thinking and technological advancements in AI.

Take a journey through the ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence with this doc exploring the challenges and opportunities ahead.

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.

The ancient Chinese game of Go has long been considered a grand challenge for artificial intelligence. Yet in 2016, Google's DeepMind team announced that they would be taking on Lee Sedol, the world's most elite Go champion. AlphaGo chronicles the team as it prepares to test the limits of its rapidly-evolving AI technology. The film pits man against machine, and reveals as much about the workings of the human mind as it does the future of AI.

Patrick Moore presents this documentary about the Apollo 13 space mission of April 1970. The video features the live TV coverage of the real-life drama from lift-off to splash-down in the Pacific Ocean.

A documentary produced in 1979 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Albert Einstein. Narrated and hosted by Peter Ustinov and written by Nigel Calder.

A team of international scientists attempt to document the first-ever image of a black hole.

Discover the meteoric rise of Elon Musk, the man who is transforming the way we think about travel technology through electric cars, the Hyperloop, and revolutionary ideas on how we live through artificial intelligence and colonizing Mars.

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.

Experimental meditation on land, consciousness, and artificial intelligence. Shot in the Okanagan and West Kootenays. Original music by Jack Brintnell.

Comprehensive survey of robotics filmed in the leading labs of the world (primarily the United States and Japan) and featuring experts such as Rodney Brooks of MIT and William “Red” Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University. Incorporates pop culture robots with the less glamorous real world and delves into the ultimate issues of what constitutes life and whether consciousness is a product of intelligence.

The recent discovery by the Kepler satellite of thousands of Earth-like planets where life could be possible, has given a big boost to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). In 2011, for the first time ever, Kepler provided us with a census of the Milky Way. We can now calculate how many stars in the Milky Way could have a planet like ours: around a billion.

Enter the captivating world of scientific exploration through the lens of Kiana Frank who is a proud Native Hawaiian and microbiologist. Her unique journey intertwines traditional wisdom with the latest molecular techniques, casting light on the intricate interactions between microorganisms and the environment they inhabit. It is within the ancient oral narrative of Meheanu, a revered goddess, that Kiana finds a clue about nitrogen cycling in fish ponds—a pivotal ecological process orchestrating the relationship between microorganisms, plants, and fish.

From Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia and Academy Award®-winning L.A. Times Studios, OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Los Angeles Times journalist Rosanna Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.

With a wealth of fantastic archive footage and a series of revealing interviews with those who had first-hand experience, filmmaker Vicki Lesley tells the turbulent story of the West’s love-hate relationship with a nuclear power over the past seventy years. Capturing both the tantalising promise and the repeated disappointments of this singular technology, the film reveals how the post-war, romantic fantasy of an Atom-powered future developed into the stormy, on-off relationship still playing out today. A tale of scientific passion and political intrigue all wrapped up in the packaging of a sentimental screen melodrama.

CERN and the University of California-Santa Barbara are collaborating in the search for the elusive substance that physicists and astronomers believe holds the universe together -- dark matter. Where is this search now in the realm of particle physics and what comes next?