We are fascinated by dinosaurs. From blockbuster hits to bestselling video games, skeleton exhibitions to cuddly plushies, the creatures that once roamed the planet have fully captured our imagination, giving us a portal to a completely alternative Earth. And it’s likely new species are still out there, waiting to be found...
Dr Nick Longrich is a palaeontologist and senior lecturer at the University of Bath, and he studies the dinosaur bones that many have overlooked. By rummaging through the back rooms of museums, he finds traces of never-before-described dinosaurs and goes on the hunt for other specimens to confirm or deny his hunch. Through these adventures, he’s discovered over a dozen new species, painting a more detailed picture of our prehistoric world.
Nick is also fascinated by rare ‘one in a million year’ events – like asteroid collisions or mega volcanic eruptions – and investigates how the event that wiped out the dinosaurs created the world we live in today. From an Island off the coast of Alaska, Jim Al-Khalili discovers how Nicks early immersion in nature has trained his brain to spot the subtle differences in the world around us that many would overlook.
Produced by Julia Ravey.
Neil de Grasse Tyson on Pluto
Richard Morris on how we know where we are
Julia Higgins on polymers
Roger Penrose on black holes
Lynne Boddy on Fungi
Ian Wilmut on Dolly the sheep
Frans de Waal on chimpanzees
Trevor Cox on sound
Georgina Mace on threatened species
Faraneh Vargha-Khadem on memory
Hazel Rymer on volcanoes
Nick Davies on cuckoos
Sheila Rowan on gravitational waves
Marcus du Sautoy on mathematics
Lawrence Krauss on dark energy
Carolyn Roberts on flood control
Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut (2016)
Venki Ramakrishnan on ribosomes
George Davey-Smith on health inequalities
Dr Nick Lane on the origin of life on earth
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