Fermat’s Last Theorem

If I were to pick my favorite documentary of all time – it would be this. Mathematics, the most rational of all subjects may seem to be an unemotional topic. For this very reason, seeing the tears in Wiles’ eyes when he recounts the inspirations that enabled him to finally solve a centuries old enigma make this a dramatic piece of the most subtle kind. Simultaneously gentle and powerful.

Running time: 43 mins.

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31 comments history, science, smashing telly top 10 documentaries

The Origin of Life

A talk by the excellent John Maynard Smith about the celebrated topic, ‘the Origins of Life’ at London’s Royal Institute, in 1995.

Running time: 59 mins

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After the Warming

A film about global warming from nearly twenty years ago by the Irish documentary maker, James Burke (Connections).

Running time: 1 hour 47 mins

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Hubble – 15 Years of Discovery

The object that has revealed more mystery than any other.

Running time: 1 hour 22 mins.

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The Mystery of the Human Hobbit

Running time: 49 mins

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Victim of the Brain

1988 Documentary about the ideas of celebrated Scientific American contributor, and ‘Godel Escher Bach’ author, Douglas Hofstadter.

Running time: 1 hour 30 mins.

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The Origins of Aids

Running time: 1 hour 30 mins.

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Horizon – Dawn of the Clone Age

Running time: 48 mins.

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A Perfect World

Beautiful and original, award winning short, produced by former entertainment economist, Cyrus Ahanchian. A perfect world looks at the issues surrounding the ability to use technological developments to select or create beauty, through genetic engineering and plastic surgery.

Running time: 21 mins.

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A New Kind of Science – Stephen Wolfram

Stephen Wolfram, a child prodigy and creator of the very successful Mathematica software application, locked himself away for several years and produced a 1000 page plus, mammoth tome – A New Kind of Science. He shunned peer review, suppressed findings from people working for him and duplicated much of the work of others either by accident or, as some have suggested, as the result of direct plagiarism. Nevertheless, there is something in what Wolfram says when he talks about a new kind of science, based upon cellular automata and emergent iterative systems, the unpredictable iteration of equations rather than equations themselves. This is an idea that is brewing in a different form in the work of others such as Stuart Kauffman and Lee Smolin.

Running time: 1 hour 27 mins.

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