The Day The Universe Changed (1985)

Episode 9. Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised (5/5)

James Burke sheds light on 18th-and 19th-century experiments with electricity and electromagnetism that sparked a technological revolution. Explored: the discoveries and contributions of Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday and Ernst Mach. The discovery of electricity led to an explosion in invention and research. Increasingly complex electrical and electronic devices, from light bulbs to airplanes have revolutionized the way people live. Scientists studied light and radio waves, developed particle theories and continue to challenge the boundaries of knowledge. The episode deals with the new era of scientific inquiry that started around 1800 with the study of the properties of electricity. Reviews advances in the study of magnetism and its relation to electricity, light, and subatomic particles. Also discusses the confusion between science and technology and the layman's essentially commonsense Newtonian view of the world while the scientific world is actually relative and uncertain.

The Day the Universe Changed (subtitled "A Personal View by James Burke") is a British documentary television series produced by and starring science historian James Burke, originally broadcast in 1985. It was released in DVD form in 2009. A companion book of the same title, also written by Burke, was published the same year, presenting the same general premise of the television series in expanded detail. A revised edition subsequently appeared in 1995.

The series' primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. The title comes from the philosophical idea that the universe essentially only exists as you perceive it through what you know; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe with new knowledge, you have essentially changed the universe itself.

To illustrate this concept, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world. The series runs in roughly chronological order, from around the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present.

Episodes

1. The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks
2. In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith & Reason
3. Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance
4. A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge
5. Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens
6. Credit Where It's Due: The Factory & Marketplace Revolution
7. What the Doctor Ordered: Social Impacts of New Medical Knowledge
8. Fit to Rule: Darwin's Revolution
9. Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised
10. Worlds Without End: Changing Knowledge, Changing Reality

Source: Wikipedia