Hawking - (2013) A documentary of his life Length: 1hr 28 mins Source: YouTube Rating: 10/10 Year: 2013 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shbs13XM3k0 Last watched: 22nd December 2013 Click the image to be directed to this documentary. Enjoy! Summary: If you are a fan of Hawking then this is an absolute must see. The documentary takes you through Hawking's life, in his own words. From his eccentric childhood, to his twenties and falling down the stairs at Oxford university (one of the first indicators he was unwell), to falling in love and of course his discoveries. Hawking has not only achieved far more than most human beings, but he has done it all on borrowed time. For forty-nine years he has surpassed medical expectations. Which has a certain kind of irony, considering his father had wanted him to study medicine but he chose physics instead. For me, the highlight was when Hawking was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease at the beginning of his PhD. His world had fallen apart, he wasn't expected to even live long enough to finish his postgraduate work and yet, for Hawking, what saved his life and gave him something to live for was not success, academic stature or fame. Instead, as he says, it was that he fell in love. A reminder from someone who has achieved so much, of what is really important when you're faced with losing everything.
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Stephen Hawking documentaries: Documentary series: 'Into the Universe' and 'Grand Design' Episodes: 3 each (6 total) Average length: 40+ minutes Sourced: YouTube and others Rating: 10/10 Year: 2010 - 2013 Broadcast by: Discovery Channel Summary: As my favourite person in the entire universe, Stephen Hawking's documentaries get 10/10 throughout. As always, Hawking is brilliantly funny and takes you through his imagination, which as he says, is what allows him to be free. Hawking's disease renders him completely paralysed apart from one eye, meaning he has to memorise the entirety of chapters for his books or scripts for his documentaries. Personally, I think that deserves a 10/10 straight off the bat. But beyond that, as far as documentaries on these subjects go, Stephen Hawking's are by far my favourite and I am yet to see a documentary series top them. They use the highest quality visualisations and Benedict Cumberbatch's narration is brilliant at conveying Hawking's enthusiasm! Hawking's is also fantastic at teaching. Subjects such as 'string theory' which are extremely complicated, Hawking makes beautifully simple. I can not recommend them highly enough. Also, in an interview with Brian Cox and David Attenborough Hawking said that he dreams in equations. Amazing. Click the image of the episode you wish to watch. Into the Universe - 1 - Aliens Time: 43:30 My Source: YouTube Last viewed: Recently Ranking: 10/10 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_5xBiAalxM Into the Universe - 2 - Time Travel Time: 43:27 My Source: Vimeo Last viewed: Recently Ranking: 10/10 Link: http://vimeo.com/17477895 Into the Universe - 3 - The Story of Everything Time: 1:26:36 My Source: Vimeo Last viewed: Recently Ranking: 10/10 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tptgwvNmFTM Grand Design - 1 - Key to the Cosmos Time: 42:33 My Source: Sockshare Last viewed: Recently Ranking: 10/10 Link: http://www.sockshare.com/file/1130F23444AD038B Grand Design - 2 - The Meaning of Life Time: 42:32 My Source: Sockshare Last viewed: Recently Ranking: 10/10 Link:http://www.sockshare.com/file/9344E675C004FB2C# Grand Design - 3 - Did God Create the Universe Time: 43:59 My Source: Putlocker Last viewed: Recently Ranking: 10/10 Link: http://www.putlocker.com/file/0A62854D7DD4ED4C# 'Secrets of the Sun' - National Geographic documentary Length: 53:06 My source: YouTube Last viewed: 21st September 2013 Ranking: 7/10 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32KVGQy3bMY Click the image to be directed to this documentary. Summary: The 'Solar and Heliospheric Observatory' (SOHO) began orbiting and observing the Sun in 1996. Since then NASA have been able to view the Sun 24 hours a day, 365 days a year as SOHO orbits 92 million miles away. This constant observation has lead to the discovery that the Sun is neither solid, liquid nor a gas. It also lead scientists to discover that the Sun vibrates and makes sound which founded a new science - helioseismology. But, also as SOHO observed through it's several different cameras, it showed solar radiation storms and geomagnetic storms which can result in Coronal Mass Ejections (CME waves). CME waves emit billions of tonnes of electrically charged particles into space, travelling at over 1 million miles per hour. When directed towards Earth, CME waves threaten to damage our protection from the Sun's radiation - our magnetic field. Therefore, The National Space Weather Protection Centre (NOAA/NWS) watches SOHO in the hope that scientists can give warning before CME waves cause overloading of national power grids which can black-out cities for hours, days, weeks or even years. -To view SOHO's images yourself, in real time, download NASA's 'Sun Viewer' application (post below). - A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME): My favourite thing in all of astrophysics. 'The Ultimate Guide to Black Holes" - BBC documentary Time: 56:45 My source: YouTube Last viewed: 24th September 2013, Rating: 9/10 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHyWD16VT00 Click the image to be directed to this documentary. Please excuse the strange opening of the video. Summary: Einstein's general relativity (theory of gravity - 1916) mathematically concludes with (0=infinity) meaning that gravity can collapse to create a singular point of infinite mass which contains no space. This is known as a singularity which exists at the centre of a black hole. It is the point where physics as we know it breaks down. This means that no one (not even Einstein who despite his own mathematics dictating their existence, denied that nature would allow them exist) can explain what happens inside a black hole or what can come out of one. Once beyond the 'event horizon' (the circular outside), matter being sucked into a black hole passes the 'inner horizon'. At this point matter is now travelling at the same speed outwards (as it tries to escape) as it is being pulled inwards and therefore is doomed to continue falling. In the same way that you are doomed to fall into a waterfall as soon as the speed of your swimming matches the speed of the water (the same experience of not being able to fight water rapids). This happens to all matter, even light (C) which travels at C = 671 million mph. This is where the name 'black hole' derives. Due to their very nature of being black, it is almost impossible to see a black hole but astrophysicists and cosmologists have developed ways of not only detecting them but also ways to measure them, to assess how common they are, where they exist, their proportional relation to their galaxy (which they are the centre of) and to conclude that black holes may be as creative as they are destructive. |
Alainah Rook
BA Criminology & Sociology
University of Kent Third year undergraduate Twitter: Alainah_NTR E-mail: [email protected] kent.academia.edu/AlainahR Archives
July 2014
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