Light Fantastic (4 Episodes) - 2-DVD Set

Light Fantastic (4 Episodes) - 2-DVD Set (DVD) (*)

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Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital Stereo )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
196 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2004 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Jeremy Turner
Nick Davidson

Written By:
Paul Sen

Actors:
Simon Schaffer ..... Himself - Presenter (4 episodes, 2004)
Dimitri Andreas ..... Al Hazen
Edmund Dehn ..... Old Issac Newton
Daniel Gosling ..... Young Issac Newton
Mark Hyde ..... Roger Bacon
Anthony Keetch ..... Otto Frisch

Synopsis:

Light Fantastic is the title of a television documentary series that explores the phenomenon of light. The series comprised four programmes respectively titled: 'Let There Be Light'; 'The Light of Reason'; 'The Stuff of Light'; and 'Light, the Universe and Everything.' The material was presented by Cambridge academic Simon Schaffer.

Let There Be Light S1, Ep1 1 Dec. 2004
The first episode shows how the desire, by Greek, Arab and Christian scholars to penetrate the divine nature of light led to modern science's origins. The programme explores the contributions of Empedocles; Euclid; Al Hazen; Roger Bacon; Descartes and Isaac Newton.
The Light of Reason S1, Ep2 8 Dec. 2004
The second episode explores the link between the development of practical tools that manipulate light and the emergence of new ideas. The subject is examined through the work of Tycho Brahe; Galileo; Vermeer; Robert Hooke; William Herschel; Ole Rømer; Charles Darwin and Ernest Rutherford. Brahe was granted the island of Hven by Denmark's Frederick II. From here he observed a comet in 1577. Tycho's measurements proved that the Church's traditional view of the Universe must be wrong.
The Stuff of Light S1, Ep3 15 Dec. 2004
The third episode charts the discovery of the true nature of light and the subsequent development of modern technology such as electricity and mobile phones. The pioneers are credited as James Clerk Maxwell; Joseph Swan William Armstrong; Thomas Edison; Wilhelm Röntgen; J. J. Thomson; and Max Planck. In 1847, as a sixteen-year-old, Maxwell was taken to see one of the minor scientic wonders of the Victorian world: A prism made from a special Icelandic crystal.
Light, the Universe and Everything S1, Ep4 22 Dec. 2004
The final episode explores the relationship between light, the eye and the mind and the development of technologies such as photography and cinema. The achievements of John Dalton; Benjamin Thompson; Thomas Young; Lord Rayleigh; Joseph Priestley; Thomas Wedgwood; Eadweard Muybridge; Étienne-Jules Marey and Albert Einstein are discussed. From their knowledge of colour blindness, some Victorian scientists believed they could prove the perceived cultural supremacy of the English by measuring differences of colour perception in different races. The idea was that animals were lower down the evolutionary scale but had better atuned senses than humans. If it could be proved that black people had better responses to light and colour this would be evidence of their inferiority. In 1898 William Rivers, together with a group of Cambridge academics, set off for the Torres Straits to prove exactly this. Rivers used a tintometer but found his original hypothesis was false and that the range of 'colour difference perception' of the islanders was little different from that of the English. When Rivers returned to England he spearheaded dissemination of the fact that there was no scientific evidence to support white supremacy. The programme continues and describes Priestley's discovery of photosynthesis.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 21 May, 2015.