Learning on ScreenSmart Stuff (Ri Christmas Lectures 2002)
- Synopsis
- A series of lectures about materials, delivered by Professor Anthony Ryan. Each lecture takes a well-known object, natural or man-made, and demonstrates the amazing properties of the materials from which the objct is made.
- Series
- Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, The
- Language
- English
- Country
- Great Britain
- Year of release
- 2003
- Year of production
- 2002
- Notes
- One lecture broadcast daily 26-30 December 2002
- Documentation
- Accompanying booklet ‘Smart Stuff’ by Anthony Ryan available separately price £5.50 from 4 Learning.
Accompanying website www.channel4.com/smartstuff - Subjects
- Science; Technology
- Keywords
- materials; materials science
Distribution Formats
- Type
- VHS
- Format
- PAL
- Price
- £19.99 each part £79.99 the set
- Availability
- Sale
- Duration/Size
- 5 X 50 minutes
- Year
- 2003
Sections
- Title
- Spider that spun a suspension bridge, The
- Synopsis
- Everything about a spider’s web - from the material it is spun from, to the glue that binds it together - is an engineering materpiece. Built in seconds, each strand in the web is a highly engineered polymer fibre, 10-times stronger than steel.
- Duration
- 50 mins
- Distributors ref
- 18514887X
- Title
- Trainer that ran over the world
- Synopsis
- An average pair of trainers lasts six months, having run 3,000 miles, absorbed 400 litres of sweat and withstood 400 tonnes of impact. This lecture explains that the secret of how they survive this battering lies in some miraculous chemistry that lurks beneath their flashy skin.
- Duration
- 50 mins
- Distributors ref
- 1851448888
- Title
- Phone that shrank the planet, The
- Synopsis
- Ten years ago mobile phones were the size of bricks, as heavy as a bag of sugar and the property of only the very rich. Now they are everywhere, smaller than a credit card and lighter than a Mars bar. Explains how the technology shrank and the price plummeted.
- Duration
- 50 mins
- Distributors ref
- 1851448896
- Title
- Plaster that stretches life
- Synopsis
- The humble plaster is one of the simplest steps on the road to repairing the damaged body, yet it is a marvel of chemical engineering - a miniature hospital, dispensing everything from antibiotics to aftercare.
- Duration
- 50 mins
- Distributors ref
- 185144890X
- Title
- Ice-cream that will freeze granny, The
- Synopsis
- Creating ice cream that will re-freeze time after time but still remain as tasty as the day it was made, is a major culinary conundrum. The problem requires all kinds of chemical trickery. But if we can achieve this seeminly magical feat, could we not do far more than make the perfect raspberry ripple? Could we cyrogenically freeze a body and then defrost it back to life?
- Duration
- 50 mins
- Distributors ref
- 1851448918
Distributor
- Name
4 Learning
- Notes
- Channel 4 Learning has now closed. This used to be the educational broadcasting arm of Channel 4. The online shop sold educational DVDs and CD-ROMs for use in primary and secondary schools.
Record Stats
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