The day the universe changed 05 - James Burke

The series Connections, Connections 2 and The Day the Universe Changed should be mandatory viewing in all schools for their contributions to understanding science and history . James Burke is a masterful communicator and these series a tremendous gift and legacy

I live in a town in rural Colorado where this is not allowed to be taught or even discussed in the classrooms, and it is a public school. When families move here, they don't stay long. It's obvious who has attended this school when trying to hold a conversation. Sad that we are going back to the Dark Ages because of politics and religion. I am not joking.

I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture he gave in Richmond Virginia of all places. Late 1980s. I feel so lucky to have been raised in the UK, when Mr Burke and others, were on TV. His multiple TV series, in part, helped me steer clear of religion.

I have found a new rabbit hole to wander around in, I tried to watch these back when they first aired, caught them when I could. I worked nights for almost all of my culinary career. Now I can watch them at my leisure, thank you for this gift. 😊

A remarkable program that should be compulsory viewing in schools.

Thanks for uploading this! Never missed the original airings. Wonderful series. Should be required watching!

I was lucky to have a whole high school class on the series. It was absolutely inspiring and fabulous!

I love the dry humor James Burke so often elegantly infused his brilliant causal historical connections with. He's like the most illuminating historian ever, on a good day.

The presentations in the Connections series was on a whole other level when it was released. In a sense, as revolutionary as the scientific breakthroughs portrayed in each episode.

what an utterly remarkable series . kudos to everybody involved .what a gift to us all.

at age 15 (1967), I was the only American in an all boys boarding school in England. One of the teachers was a Tycho Brahe (sp?) like oddity, who had a red pointed beak face, always bent over, wearing a black smock. There were always large flakes of dandruff on his shoulders. He had a high piercing voice. When he caught me not paying full attention to his lecture (while he continually paced from side to side like an agitated raven) in front of the blackboard, he would throw a piece of chalk at me.

loved this series when i was a kid in the 70's Funny to think even with my modest university level physics/engineering, would have been godlike in those days ( or burnt at the stake possibly 😂😂)

Thanks for this but what possible reason could anyone have to censor it?

This series is available in many places on YouTube un-cut and messed about with. If you persevered of course the final part is praise to that unique genius Newton.

ruined by censorship

If people ask me if I believe in God, I answer: 'Nature and science are my Gods.' ...infinitely fascinating.

I used to love watching Burke Special. Also Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.

Whoever started the psychedelic music at 42:00 has my undying respect

The rollercoaster he's on around 41:00 is (was) the Corkscrew at Alton Towers in the UK. The ride opened in April, 1980, and closed in 2008, according to Wikipedia. I just wanted a way to approximate when this was filmed and thought a few fellow nerds would like to know as well. Edit: and then I see at the end of this heavily edited video, the uploader graced us with mostly complete credits. The BBC's copyright date was MCMLXXXV.... (1985). Oh well, I still learned things. 😁

Enjoyed the online presentations and those that have been on PBS. Got the book and read it. Like the book as well. Several episodes of Mr. Burke's series, offer up the observation that there is often a good deal of prosperity generated with the folks that noodle away, obsessively doing this or that. This money factor might be the reason that some governments have promoted or even protected, politically, these perceived clever people; these cited governments might have been interested in the extra thus generated tax revenue? Suggesting that the BCE Greeks might have been a little more crass that originally suspected.