The Substance

In 1943, the year in which the first A-bomb was built, Albert Hofmann discovered LSD, a substance that was to become an A-bomb of the mind. Fractions of a milligram are enough to turn our framework of time and space upside down. The story of a drug - its discovery in the Basel chemistry lab, the first experiments by Albert Hofmann on himself, the 1950s experiments of the psychiatrists, the consciousness researchers, the artists.

In 1943, the year in which the first A-bomb was built, Albert Hofmann discovered LSD, a substance that was to become an A-bomb of the mind.

This series helps teachers demystify physics by showing students what it looks like. Field trips to hot-air balloon events, symphony concerts, bicycle shops, and other locales make complex concepts more accessible. Inventive computer graphics illustrate abstract concepts such as time, force, and capacitance, while historical re-enactments of the studies of Newton, Leibniz, Maxwell, and others trace the evolution of theories.

Cholesterol. For almost 50 years, the word has evoked fear. When people started dropping dead in alarming numbers after WWII

In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut , 1973, middle class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.

For billions of years our planet was devoid of life, but something transformed it into a vibrant, living planet. That something was soil. It's a much-misunderstood substance, often dismissed as 'dirt', something to be avoided. Yet the crops we eat, the animals we rely on, the very oxygen we breathe, all depend on the existence of the plant life that bursts from the soil every year. In this film, gardening expert Chris Beardshaw explores where soil comes from, what it's made of and what makes it so essential to life.