Sunday 8pm GENIUS BY STEPHEN HAWKING: Professor Stephen Hawking reveals our true potential in a radical new science show which challenges a selection of volunteers and the viewer to think like the greatest geniuses of the past and answer some of humanity's toughest and most enduring questions.
Using large-scale experiments and incredible stunts, we'll follow the volunteers' journeys as they get to grips with molecular biology, astrophysics and even quantum mechanics. Likewise, we'll learn about the geniuses whose discoveries helped build our scientific knowledge and allowed us to solve questions like "Where are we?" "Are we alone?" and "Can we travel through time?"
EPISODE 1 - Can three volunteers work out if time travel is possible?
Hawking leads us on a fascinating journey of discovery, featuring DeLoreans, clocks, a giant black hole and a large swathe of New York City. It seems as if nothing is beyond his imagination. Without any mathematics or equations, he effortlessly manages to get three non-scientists to grasp 4 dimensional space and time travel.
EPISODE 2 - The task is to work out the likelihood of alien life out there in the universe.
Cue an extraordinary journey of discovery, involving tons of sand, huge machinery, some straightforward thinking and several amazing, head-exploding reveals. The team discovers how many stars there are in the night sky, how to look for planets around those stars and how many of those planets could harbor life.
EPISODE 3 - This episode is truly mind-bending – can they work out why they exist at all?
Featuring smashed glasses, spooky castles and a truly freaky flash-mob illustration of multiple universes, Why Are We Here? takes the subjects down a rabbit hole of deeply profound realizations. During this process Stephen Hawking helps them think like philosophers as much as scientists. The end result is that the volunteers have a newfound appreciation of why they are here at all.
EPISODE 4 - Can we work out where the universe comes from?
With the help of racing cars, ice-skaters, balloons and running tracks, Hawking leads his three intrepid souls to a deeper understanding of the evolution of the universe than the average physics major.
EPISODE 5 - “We all have questions – big questions.”
In this episode a new set of volunteers take on some more extraordinary tasks. They begin with a crazy Rube Goldberg chain reaction machine, and from there the realizations come thick and fast. Self-assembling machines, light-up bacteria and the world’s first physical demonstration of evolution in action conspire to totally revolutionize their view of life. We discover not only that our bodies are machines of incredible complexity, but how they came to exist and how long it took for our lives to come about.
EPISODE 6 - Can three volunteers to measure the solar system and universe to find out where we are?
In this episode the volunteers take on some extraordinary tasks. To start, they visit a lake in Nevada. Using a helicopter, a boat and a powerful laser, can they prove the earth is round – and even measure it. Next they head off to the iconic Black Rock Desert to try and get a grip on the massive scale of the solar system. We learn that our galaxy is full of billions of stars, and the sun, the centre of our solar system, is just one of them. What’s more, our galaxy is just one of billions of similar clusters in the universe, which stretch out in every direction.
GO BEYOND THE SERIES with episode recaps and extras to keep you thinking like a genius.
