Professor Chris Freeman, the founder and first director of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex introduces J.D. Bernal.  As well as becoming one of the first social scientists Bernal was the father of the protein crystallography techniques which enabled the double helix structure of DNA to be unravelled.

John Maynard Smith, one of our most eminent evolutionary biologists and scientific communicators originally trained as an engineer and spent the war years designing aircraft.  In this video he describes the way that flight developed in the animal kingdom. The fossil record indicates that the long tails which stabilised the flight of the first birds evolved into shorter, less stable, structures which allowed greater agility.

Helen Sharman, the UK`s first astronaut, gives a vibrant account of her personal experience of life in space using models and film to illustrate the key scientific concepts involved in spaceflight.

Scientist John Murrell discusses in this video the basic physical principles relating to the gaseous, liquid and solid states with the aid of models and demonstrations. Attention is drawn to phase changes and subtle features involving intermediate phases such as liquid crystals, supercritical fluids and pseudosolids. These aspects are developed further in interactive discussions.