It discusses the development of early astronomy from the human propensity for pattern recognition, comets as omens, Edmond Halley, Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, gravity, Newton's seminal book, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, and Halley's Comet. When Knowledge Conquered Fear is about the importance of mathematics in science. Third Episode: When Knowledge Conquered Fear īabe Ruth in 1916 - "Like Babe Ruth predicting where his next home run would land in the stands, Halley stated flatly the comet would return." (Episode 3). The only shame is to pretend that we have all the answers. We're not afraid to admit what we don't know.
There might be creatures that inhale hydrogen instead of oxygen. the seas and the rain are made not of water but of methane and ethane. (While standing near the as-yet-unnamed, sixth corridor in the "Halls of Extinction.")
Second Episode: Some of the Things That Molecules Do Ī DNA molecule - "ur genetic code written in a language that all life can read." (Episode 2). It's the passing of a torch from teacher to student to teacher a community of minds reaching back to antiquity, and forward to the stars.
Standing Up in the Milky Way is the series introductory episode. The Crab Nebula was created by a supernova - "You, me, everyone: we are made of star stuff." (Episode 1).