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The Ascent of Man Episodes

  1.

    The Long Childhood

    13/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski takes stock of man's complex and often precarious ascent.

  2. Generation upon Generation

    12/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski traces the history of genetics, from Gregor Mendel to DNA.

  3. Knowledge or Certainty?

    11/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski considers how absolute certainty is beyond our grasp.

  4. World within World

    10/13 The ideas that gave expression to the invisible, intangible structure beneath all matter.

  5. The Ladder of Creation

    9/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski recounts the adventures of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin.

  6. The Drive for Power

    8/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski reflects on the Industrial Revolution.

  7. The Majestic Clockwork

    7/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski explores how Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are connected by light.

  8. The Starry Messenger

    6/13 Dr Jacob Bronowski looks at the life, work and trial of Galileo.

  9. Music of the Spheres

    5/13 Dr Bronowski gives his own novel proof of Pythagoras' famous theorem.

  10. The Hidden Structure

    4/13 Jacob Bronowski examines man's probing of the hidden structure below the visible world.

  11. The Grain in the Stone

    3/13 Jacob Bronowski discovers the origins of science in the interaction of hand and brain.

  12. The Harvest of the Seasons

    2/13 Jacob Bronowski looks at mankind's move from nomadic pasturage to settled agriculture.

  13. Lower than the Angels

    1/13 Jacob Bronowski opens the first programme at the Great Rift Valley of East Africa.