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The Moth and the Flame

Professor Brian Cox reveals how Earth's beauty is created by just a handful of forces. In this episode, he investigates the building blocks of life.

Professor Brian Cox shows how Earth's basic ingredients, like the pure sulphur mined in the heart of a deadly volcano in Indonesia, have become the building blocks of life. Hidden deep in a cave in the Dominican Republic lies a magical world created by the same property of water that makes it essential to life. Clinging to a precipitous dam wall in Italy, baby mountain goats seek out Earth's chemical elements essential to their survival. In the middle of the night in a bay off Japan, Brian explains how the dazzling display of thousands of glowing squid shows how life has taken Earth's chemistry and turned it into the chemistry of life.

Available now

58 minutes

Audio described

Music Played

  • Jamie xx

    The Rest Is Noise

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Brian Cox
Executive Producer Andrew Cohen
Series Producer Danielle Peck
Producer Matthew Dyas
Director Matthew Dyas

Broadcasts

  • Mon 18 Jul 2016 21:00
  • Tue 19 Jul 2016 23:55
  • Wed 20 Jul 2016 00:30
  • Sat 6 Aug 2016 02:05
  • Thu 1 Feb 2018 21:00
  • Fri 2 Feb 2018 02:35
  • Tue 2 Jul 2019 23:00
  • Thu 24 Oct 2019 20:00
  • Sat 20 Jun 2020 08:45
  • Sat 12 Mar 2022 09:00

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