Horizon follows the work of R. Buckminster Fuller and his research of the geodesic dome.

The World of Buckminster Fuller

Dr. Frank Darling and Dr. Eric Edson discuss different environmental priorities.

Pesticides and Posterity

A reconstruction of a Michael Faraday lecture last given in December 1860.

A Candle to Nature

Horizon explores the findings of physicists at Brookhaven, Long Island, New York. Who, after two years and thousands of photographs, have identified a predicted new particle which has a unique characteristic: 'strangeness minus three'.

Strangeness Minus Three

Horizon looks at the work of the National Institute for Medical Research.

The Air of Science

Prof. Arthur C. Clarke, Derek Price and Nigel Balchin discuss the past and future of science.

The Knowledge Explosion

The Amateur Scientist

Horizon investigates the 'Tots and Quots' and the 'Woodgeries' two groups set up by scientists before the second world war to discuss the future of science and how it effects society.

Tots and Quods and Woodgeries

Horizon takes a look at science in the spirit of Christmas.

Science, Toys and Magic

At a time when the use of teaching machines is fast expanding, Horizon looks at the principles behind them and enquires into their success

Learning from Machines

Horizon profiles the Bell Laboratories in the United States. They are one of the most important research and development centers where more than 4000 scientists work with a budget of one hundred million pounds every year. Horizon investigates the possibility of setting up a similar research station in Britain.

The Technique of Change

Horizon explores American plans to launch a space observatory to map the universe and learn how stars are created.

Star Gazers

Horizon looks at the relationship between science and art, and also explores artists attitudes towards science.

Science and Art

Horizon investigates the states of big research computers in Britain. Also, Horizon looks at the H-Bomb Detectors and how British scientists have developed a nuclear explosion detector which has changed the political outlook for nuclear test controls.

The Great Computer Scandal / H-Bomb Detectors

Is there a fifth force in the Universe, or must we revise our ideas about time? Horizon visits the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory where an experiment is running to settle this, and talks to Dr. Lipman.

Forbidden Events  / I am a Madman

Prof. Andrade presents a tribute to Robert Hooke: architect, astronomer, geologist, and meteorologist who discovered the cell. This episode also includes a report on a 36 year study of the cell wall by Prof. Preston.

Restless Genius / Faster, Farther, Higher

Every day, on average, another 431 British women start taking the contraceptive pill. The manufacturers insist that it is the most carefully tested drug on the market today. But some scientists and doctors are concerned about the potential long-term effects of taking it.

The Other Side of the Pill

Nine years after the passing of the Clean Air Act, where do we stand? Scientists are gradually finding out why dirty air Is so harmful to ill persons with Dr. P. J. Lawther of Air Pollution Research Centre at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

Whenever the things they study are too big, too far off, or too hot to handle, scientists can make a model of these-but can they be sure their models truly represent reality?

The Big Smoke / The Model Makers

When a rubber tyre rolls fast on a wet surface it may rise on a film of water and begin to 'aquaplane.' Scientists are studying this fact which creates a real hazard to aircraft passengers and fast drivers.

A new membrane developed in America holds forth the prospect of men being able to live under water.

The Long Slide  / Men with Gills

Horizon looks at Prof. Perry Gilbert's research on captured sharks and meets with the eminent physiologist Sir Henry Dale as he celebrates his 90th birthday and looks back on his career in medical research.

The eminent physiologist, who celebrates his ninetieth birthday today, looks back on his first discovery sixty years ago.

Men and Sharks / Sir Henry Dale, OM, FRS

Dr. Jacob Bronowski, who a year ago took up the deputy directorship of the Salk Institute in California, discusses with Tom Rosenthal his new activities and how he feels about working in the golden West.

The recent total eclipse of the sun was probably the most closely studied ever. With special film from the Pacific, Horizon examines what was done and why.

For the first time deaf children can see a visual pattern of their own attempts at speech. In the programme a new machine is shown which may revolutionize the teaching of speech and language to these handicapped children.

The Brain Gain / The Sudden Night / Learning to Speak

This episode of Horizon features Dr. Joseph Needham, an eminent scientist and humanist who is perhaps the greatest living authority on China.

An account of the space probe Mariner IV which will be flying past Mars tonight.

Dr. Joseph Needham / Mariner IV

Is all science fiction merely fantasy - or can it give valuable clues to the future?

A discussion between Desmond Morris and the ethologist George Schaller.

Science Fiction : Science Fact? / Alone and Unarmed

The four men who opened up a new field of physics: Max Born, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg and George Thompson meet and discuss topic with John Charap at the annual science conference in Lindau, Germany.

Certain of Uncertainty / State of Nature

Professor Harold Edgerton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has won international recognition for his achievements in ultra-high-speed photography, talks about his work and shows some of the remarkable pictures, both still and moving, that he has taken.

Time Stood Still / Weighty Matters

Horizon interviews Prof. Andrade about his collection of rare scientific books which he was about to sell.

Fuel for the Future / Collector's Piece

On the 300th anniversary of Isaac Newton's greatest year of discovery, one of his most ardent disciples, Prof. Julius Summer-Miller, comes from California to illustrate the excitement of seeing Newton's principles in action.

Let Newton Be

What sort of person can invent a 3-D microscope, a new way of photographing the moon, publish fifty papers on perception, and spend three weeks hunting for a minute sea creature to see how its eyes work? Cambridge psychologist Richard Gregory is a man of many facets. Tonight's film examines his inventiveness—its sources and its products.

An M.R.C. team headed by Dr. D. G. Phillips has taken the first step towards answering the vital question: how do enzymes work?

Special Senses / Toil, Sweat & Tears

Horizon explores heart attacks and thrombosis.

An Affair of the Heart

Horizon probes into the Etruscan tombs in Italy.

Carlo Lerici, scientist and archaeologist, has brought past and future together. Using geophysical methods intended for mineral surveying, he has detected 10,000 unknown Etruscan tombs in ten years.

10,000 Tombs

Horizon profiles the scientist, polymath, and Nobel prize winner Prof. Albert Szent-Gyorgi.

Albert Szent-Györgyi M.D., Ph.D., D.h.c.

A look at some of the huge new radio telescopes which have recently started work in Britain, France, Russia, America, and elsewhere. Sir Bernard Lovell, Professor Martin Ryle, and M. Émile-Jacques Blum explain the scientific motive for this vast expenditure.

The Big Dishes / The Living Stream

Horizon re-stages highlights from Professor C. V. Boys's famous Christmas lectures on bubbles and surface tension which drew crowds to the London Institution sixty-six years ago. Then,  a mathematician challenges you to solve some of the puzzles he has invented.

Boys on Bubbles / Problems and Puzzles

Horizon follows experiments on the eyes being undertaken at the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. The purpose of the experiments are to discover if our eyes can tell us things we might prefer to keep secret.

In Romania, more than forty thousand people have been given Gerovital H3, in the belief that it will make them younger.

Windows of the Soul / Elixir of Youth

Horizon explores an American mental hospital, observing schizophrenic patients under treatment with remarkable new drugs.

The American equivalent of the British Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, met in Berkeley, California between Christmas and New Year.

The Troubled Mind / Triple-A. S.

A profile of Dr. Albert Copley, the famous hematologist, who is also known as an accomplished artist under the name of Alcopley.

For a country striving to raise its productivity, the supply of applied scientists is tremendously important. Professor S. A. Tobias, an engineer, and Lord Todd, ex-chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council, discuss the problems of educating them and their importance in society.

A Man of Two Visions / The Scientist Applied

Horizon looks at the research of dolphins being conducted at a United States naval base in Port Magu, California. The research concentrates on the dolphin's abilities of navigation.

The eminent Canadian geologist, Professor Tuzo Wilson, explains his new 'Froth on the Broth' theory of the structure of the earth to David Wilson.

The Dolphins that Joined The Navy / A Theory of The Earth

North of Boston, on Route 128, a new industrial landscape based on science is developing. Here men of high intellectual qualifications are developing way-out products, including a helicopter powered by radio waves, a computer which teaches medical diagnosis, and a hair-raising way of testing driving conditions.

Route 128

A remarkable Swedish film of the gradual development of the human embryo from fertilisation until birth.

One man's impression of what science has done for the modern world: an animated film by Stan Vanderbeek.

The Beginning of Life / Science Friction

Horizon looks into inventors who struggle against exploding technology, the buying power of great industries and taxation problems to make their leaps into the unknown.

An account of a remarkable surgical operation recently performed in China.

So you want to be an Inventor? / The Severed Hand

Europe's heritage of pictures, statues, and buildings is being destroyed at a frightening rate by atmospheric pollution, but an American scientist has just invented a method of preserving limestone.

In 1908, a vast explosion shook the Tungus district of Siberia: was it due to the biggest meteorite ever to hit the earth, or something odder?

Chance and Decay / Meteorite Mystery

The location of the historic city of Troy was finally pinned down by the researches of Carl Blegen.

By A.D. 2,000, more than half the world's population may be living in cities. The population of some of them may exceed 60 million. This is one of the main preoccupations of the World Institute of Ekistics.

Towers of Ilium / The Exploding City

Horizon travels to the spacecraft center in Houston, Texas to study astronauts in space and how they react to being in space and the stresses of launching and re-entry.

Man in Space

Horizon looks at the possibilities of landing a man on the planet Mars.

The Editors of two leading scientific magazines, Dennis Flanagan of the Scientific American, and Nigel Calder of the New Scientist, discuss with Gordon Rattray Taylor the problems of popularizing science and placing it in a social context.

Destination Mars / Editors in Conference"

Gordon Taylor meets with Konrad Lorenz, the inventor of ethology, and interviews him about his work on animal instinct and his theories about human instinct.

The world knows all about the uncanny mathematical abilities of the computer. But what happens when these machines learn to draw?

Man meets Duck / The Picture Machines

Horizon explores substitute 'phantoms' which are used in radiation studies, manned spaceflight experiments and accident research that gives valuable information on the limits of tolerance on the human body.

Where must the Money Go? / Phantoms Incorporated

Dr. John Gurdon talks about the action of the chromosomes puffing when they undergo intense genetic activity.

Sir Solly Zuckerman talks about his new book Scientists and War which outlines his views on the impact of science on affairs civil and military.

Genes in Action / Scientists and War

Horizon investigates the research conducted in England and America on the problems associated with autistic children.

The Lonely Children

This episode of Horizon reports on the famous science fiction writer, H. G. Wells.

An interview with John Maddox, the new editor of one of the world's most influential scientific journals, Nature, in which he discusses his ideas for bringing up-to-date the magazine's coverage of scientific events.

Man of Science / 'Nature' Tomorrow

Horizon reports on the the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Many parents know that their child has a problem but do not have the necessary insight to deal with it. A psychiatrist uses drawings and paintings to reveal children's characters.

M.I.T.'s ABC / The Disturbed Child

Horizon looks at the scientific research being carried out in the Antarctic under the guidance the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) which was formed in 1856.

Ten Years in the Antarctic

Horizon investigates the stresses on athletes.

The Athlete

Christopher Chataway presents a program on the development of the rocket, first as a weapon, and then for the American space program.

From Peenemunde to the Moon

Doctors and psychologists talk about the problems inherent in the determination of sex.

Sex-Change?

This program shows the work of Ernst Chain, one of the discoverers of antibiotics, now a Professor of Biochemistry at the Imperial College in London.

The Structure of Life

The survival of Britain as an industrial power depends of science and on scientists. But are our scientists paid enough to attract them into the right jobs?

The Wages of Science

Horizon probes into whether aggressiveness is our birthright and can society live without violence?

Sons of Cain

Medical advances have made it possible for 'life' to be maintained in an unconscious patient who has irrevocable brain damage and who might also be dependent on artificial aids to circulation and respiration. Is it now meaningless to define 'death' as the cessation of a heart beat?  Why do so many people have difficulty In communicating, or in simply getting-on with other people? Psychologists have now begun to analyse aspects of social behaviour in a way which they believe will lead to more pleasant and more effective human relationships.

When Is a Body Dead? / How to Win Friends and Influence People

In this episode, Horizon looks at a new school of mathematics and physics near Novosibirsk in Siberia, Russia. This school uses a competition held for Russian school children to qualify new students.

How Best to Make a Man / How Best to Make a Scientist

Horizon profiles the life of the greatest physical scientist: Michael Faraday. Crucial events of his scientific career in science are reconstructed.

Dynamo - The Life of Michael Faraday

Horizon looks at some research recently carried out into the migraine headache and the means to provide treatment for it.

Migraine

Horizon probes in the danger of germs and infection in the operating theater and the methods currently used to prevent contamination.

How Safe Is Surgery?

Joel, a healthy young American, is reduced to a restless neurotic state after being deprived of his dreams for three nights. Mr Bates, an eighty-four-year-old ex-milk man, has never dreamed in his life, or so he says until he is woken by scientists in the middle of a dream trip to New York.

Sleep and Dreams

Will the next major war be fought with biological and chemical weapons? What are the available weapons? What is the horror they can cause? Is there any moral justification for their use?

The Shape of War to Come

Horizon explores the part of the human brain devoted to memory.

Memory

Horizon reports on the methods being used to irrigate the Negev Desert, making it fertile based on the methods of ancient civilizations.

Masters of the Desert

In this the first of two programmes dealing with cancer, Horizon looks at the intensive search now going on to discover whether a virus is one of the causes of cancer in humans and at the implications of this search in the treatment for such killer diseases as leukemia.

Cancer - The Search for the Virus

Why is there doubt in so many people's minds about the relationship between lung cancer and smoking? Tonight's programme examines the latest scientific evidence in detail.

Cancer - The Smoker's Gamble

Horizon explores the work in the developmental field of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).

Science and the Supernatural

Horizon explores the misconceptions that people have about what hypnosis is and looks at the medical implications of what it can do.

Hypnosis

During the human struggles between the British and German air forces ... another conflict was going on step by step, month by month. This was a secret war whose battles were lost or won unknown to the public: and only with difficulty is it comprehended even now by those outside the smalt high scientific circles concerned.

The War of the Boffins

Horizon looks at a Scottish chemist's unusual application for whisky: a measure of radioactive carbon 14 used for determining how old an object is.

Aspects of Alcohol

Horizon looks into how man is learning to survive in the oceans.

Lords of the Sea

In this episode, Horizon reports on new materials that are being used as art media by gaining inspiration from factory and industrial processes.

Will Art Last?

Horizon investigates air navigation and flight safety.

Air Safety: The Unknown Factor

Horizon reports on the problem of exterminating the pine processionary caterpillars infestation from the pine forests of Provence, Canada.

The Life and Death of the Pine Processionary

Arthur Koestler talks about the psychological theories of creativity and the role of the mind in science and art.

Koestler on Creativity

Horizon looks into the life of Ted Serios who claims to have psychic powers and to be able to project images onto film using only his thoughts.

The World of Ted Serios

Prof. J. Sumner-Miller asks some questions for enquiring minds on walking, singing, swimming, and flying toys.

Professor in Toyland

Horizon reports on Prof. Sir John Baker who is a distinguished British engineer, tracing his career beginning from his early work on airships.

An Ingenious Man - Sir H. John Baker

This episode covers interviews with surgeons and research workers discussing the need for animal experimentation in medical work.

Man's Best Friend

In England addicts get their heroin, and often cocaine, on the National Health Service: our system has prevented the growth of a drug-based criminal world, but Americans say that our system only worked when we did not have a serious addiction problem. Now we do. Does our present system make it too easy for the casual drug experimenter to become a hard-core addict? Is there anything we can learn from the American situation?

Once a Junkie

Horizon explores the problem of increasing traffic in Britain.

Towns, Traffic and Tomorrow

In this episode, Horizon looks into the advances in medical science.

The Man Makers

This episode presents the view by G. M. Carstairs, social psychiatrist, about the pleasures and problems of life in Britain in 1968.

Man in Search of Himself

Horizon looks into modern methods of crime investigation.

Investigating Murder

Horizon follows reporter Paul Ferris as he examines the causes and motitives for murder.

The Equation of Murder

This is the story of the life and career of Winston Churchill's scientific advisor, Lord Cherwell, during World War II.

The Lindemann Enigma

Horizon explores "factory farming" techniques for chickens and other livestock.

From Field to Factory

In this episode, Dr. Alex Comfort looks at the scientific evidence for old age and the problems caused by ageing.

Comfort on Aging

Horizon investigates how science is used to enhance weapons of war, tactics, and strategy.

Experiments in War

In 1917, Russia had fewer than twenty doctors for every million of her people. Today, the figure is over 2,000: almost twice as many as in this country. The organisational changes that were necessary to build a Health Service in the country with the largest share of the earth's surface were vast. The resulting system is very different from ours.

Medecine in Russia

In this episode, Horizon looks into controversial medicine practices in Nigeria.

African Medicine

This episode by Horizon is about Irene Kassorlas, who's new treatment for autism has produced positive results with mute children.

The Broken Bridge

Horizon reports on speech and comprehension disorders in children, and how to educate them.

Children Without Words

Horizon explores how computers are changing our way of life.

The Computer Revolution

Horizon reports on the effects of the birth control pill on the body and how the pill can effect the changes in glucose metabolism.

Doctor's Dilemma

This is the fictional drama about the evidence for and against the charges that Dr. Alfred Noble misused his invention of dynamite.

In the Matter of Dr. Alfred Nobel

Horizon explores the possibility that our civilization as a whole can be viewed as a pattern based on the wheel.

Wheels Within Wheels

In this episode, Horizon investigates the study of science by african americans.

Black Man, White Science

Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.

All Episodes of Horizon

Browse all episodes of Horizon

Season 1

The World of Buckminster Fuller

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 2/4/1964

Pesticides and Posterity

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 5/30/1964

A Candle to Nature

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 6/27/1964

Strangeness Minus Three

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 7/25/1964

The Air of Science

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 8/22/1964

The Knowledge Explosion

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 9/21/1964

The Amateur Scientist

Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/19/1964

Tots and Quods and Woodgeries

Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/16/1964

Science, Toys and Magic

Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 12/14/1964