Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Planets aren’t rare. Life is surprisingly durable. The more we’ve learned about the Universe, the more the search for extraterrestrial life has shifted from science fiction to serious scientific undertaking. So it’s worth considering how humanity would react if we learned, through some distant but unmistakable signal, that lifeforms elsewhere in the Universe were communicating with us. In this interview, Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Center for SETI Research in California, discusses how first contact is more likely to be perspective-shifting than Earth-shattering.
Producer: Marco Patricio
Director: Stuart Langfield
video
Ageing and death
We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?
6 minutes
video
Archaeology
How researchers finally solved the puzzle of the oldest known map of the world
18 minutes
video
Evolution
How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution
60 minutes
video
Art
A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships
6 minutes
video
Making
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
video
Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes
video
Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
video
Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes