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For two and a half years, Americans fought Against the British, Canadian colonists, and native nations. In the years to come, the War of 1812 would be celebrated in some places and essentially forgotten in others. But it is a war worth remembering—a struggle that threatened the existence of Canada, then divided the United States so deeply that the nation almost broke apart. Some of its battles and heroes became legendary, yet its blunders and cowards were just as prominent. The film shows how the glories of war became enshrined in history – how failures are quickly forgotten – how inconvenient truths are ignored forever.
With stunning re-enactments, evocative animation and the incisive commentary of key experts, The War of 1812 presents the conflict that forged the destiny of a continent.
The War of 1812 premiered Monday, October 10, 2011.
Watch through this documentary from History Channel on the complete history of Swords.
Monster mutants lurk in the myths of many cultures, and we're fascinated yet fearful of nature's mutants. But mutants are closer to home than we think. Often invisible, mutations are happening all around us, in every living thing. They're crucial part of evolution. Now researchers are uncovering how mutations actually work and that may help us find cures for life threatening diseases. As we understand more about mutation we may discover more secrets of the history and future of life on this planet. In 19th century America, people flocked to dime museums to view the odd and the unexplained. Dime museums were full of anything the American public would pay 10 cents to see. People were always been interested in the weird, the strange, the bizarre, the exotic and the unusual. For just 10 cents they came to see the worst that nature had on offer. Some creatures were fake products of an entrepreneur's imagination, but others brought us face to face with real mutations.
In Great Britain there was a celebrated sideshow freak Joseph Merrick, the famed elephant man. A tragic mutation within his genes gave rise to a disease called Proteus Syndrome. Large bony growths covered the right side of his entire body. A mutation is a change in our genes. Deep within every cell, our chromosomes hold the instructions for life and the genes are held on long and delicate strands of DNA.
They're like a recipe book, but sometimes there's an unexpected change in part of the recipe. The result is an altered or damaged gene that we call a mutation. For Joseph Merrick the mutation was so severe, he could never lead a normal life. He spent his adult years as a sideshow freak until he was rescued and offered shelter at the Royal London Hospital. His short life ended at the age of 28.
Toady such human tragedies are no longer a source of entertainment, but many of us are still fascinated by creatures that are one in a million. In West Fork, Arkansas, Fred Lally has spent 50 years collecting some of the most unusual reptiles. Fred has been fascinated by reptilian oddities all his life, and he now makes a living by taking his mutant pets on tour to summer county fairs. But of all the animal anomalies he encountered in his long career one stands hand a shoulders above the rest. Fred paid $20,000 for one of the rarest reptiles in the world - the snake named "Golden Girls."
In nature conjoined twins are rare, but they nearly always make the slot at the end of the evening news bulletins. In humans, if the embryo hasn't divided by the third week of pregnancy, then Siamese or conjoined twins may result. They're among the rarest of human beings. Only a few hundred pairs are born each year, more than half are stillborn and may live for only a few days. But are conjoined twins actually caused by mutation? Whether conjoined twins are mutations or not they're only the tip of the mutation iceberg. Mutations are happening every day to all of us, but most of the time they're invisible.
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the deadliest stretches of ocean on earth. But what if there were an even deadlier one? In the Pacific there may be. Why massive state-of-the-art ship was suddenly lost with all hands? What happened to the aircraft that vanished without a clue? What deadly forces sent sailors to their doom? It's really a terrifying experience for those that were on board. The world's most powerful navy knows the dangers well. The moment you stop respecting it and fearing it is when things go wrong.
Join the search to fathom the Pacific Ocean's deadliest enigma, a quest that takes us over, on, and deep into the depths of the deep blue graveyard called The Devil's Sea.On September 8, 1980, carrying 150,000 tons of iron ore, the boat carrier Derbyshire was 230 miles off the east coast of Okinawa. The Derbyshire was a gigantic ship, longer than three football fields, twice the size of the Titanic, only four years old. From stem to stern, her design was state of the art. Anyone should have felt perfectly safe sailing aboard her. But some, like able seaman Peter Lambert, didn't.
Reluctantly, Peter signed on for one more voyage to earn enough money to get married. He was 19 years old. But his wedding would never take place. On September 9, the Derbyshire and her entire crew disappeared. It was the largest British ship ever lost at sea, and no one could explain why. How could this giant ship, crewed by experienced mariners, simply vanish, without a distress call, and without leaving any trace? Could she be another victim of one of the Pacific Ocean's most enduring and frightening enigmas?
To the south of Japan lies a vast expanse of empty ocean. Since the 1940s, scores of gigantic ships have mysteriously vanished in these cruel seas. Many of them were lost without even sending an SOS, leaving no clue as to their fate. But these waters have been claiming victims for centuries. Long ago, Japanese sailors gave this region a chilling name, Mano Umi, The Devil's Sea. Japanese legends tell of unknown forces that overpowered the strongest of ships, and great sea monsters that dragged sailors to their death.
Today, the legend of sea monsters may have faded, but Japanese fishermen still fear The Devil's Sea, even as its rich bounty draws them to risk their lives. The Devil's Sea is also an abundant sea. Fish always cluster here. These seas are very different from other places. Waves change quickly and unpredictably. So if you're relaxed on a boat in these places, you will get into trouble. Intrigued by persistent reports of mysterious disappearances, some have searched for patterns that might solve the enigma of The Devil's Sea.
The Fabric of the Cosmos, a four-hour series based on the book by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time and the universe. With each step, audiences will discover that just beneath the surface of our everyday experience lies a world we'd hardly recognize--a startling world far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected.
In Episode 3, "Quantum Leap," Join Brian Greene on a wild ride into the weird realm of quantum physics, which governs the universe on the tiniest of scales. Greene brings quantum mechanics to life in a nightclub like no other, where objects pop in and out of existence, and things over here can affect others over there, instantaneously and without anything crossing the space between them. A century ago, during the initial shots in the quantum revolution, the best minds of a generation-including Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr-squared off in a battle for the soul of physics. How could the rules of the quantum world, which work so well to describe the behavior of individual atoms and their components, conflict so dramatically with the everyday rules that govern people, planets and galaxies?
BBC Documentary on Traditional Chinese Medicine. For thousands of years, what we now think of as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) was the only medicine; now, traditional cures are being treated with a fresh respect. For BBC TWO, scientist Professor Kathy Sykes from Bristol University Kathy Sykes investigates why science is starting to respond to these centuries-old remedies....
Alternative Medicine: The Evidence on Acupuncture Kathy begins her journey in China where she sees some incredible demonstrations of acupuncture. The most astonishing is a scene in a Chinese hospital in which doctors perform open heart surgery on a young woman - using a combination of acupuncture and conventional pain relief instead of a general anaesthetic. In China, she discovers, acupuncture is used alongside western medicine and, at times, as a replacement.
So, what does western science make of these claims? Kathy meets the key scientists, both in the UK and in the US, who have put them to the test. She discovers that - although for most conditions and illnesses acupuncture cannot be shown to work - scientists have, intriguingly, uncovered a number of conditions relating to chronic pain in which they can be fairly certain acupuncture is having a powerful effect.
Kathy recruits a team of top scientists and alternative practitioners to find out if acupuncture might be having an effect. Over several months they devise an experiment which they hope will find the answer and finally uncover the secrets of acupuncture. Kathy and her team scan the brains of volunteers undergoing acupuncture. The conclusions challenge current understandings of the workings of the brain and throws new light on this ancient practice.
