Biology

Infested! Living with Parasites

Dr Michael Mosley explores the bizarre and fascinating world of parasites by turning his body into a living laboratory and deliberately infes...

Secret Universe: The Hidden Life Of The Cell

This film reveals the exquisite machinery of the human cell system from within the inner world of the cell itself - from the fre...

03: The Secret of Sex | How to Build a Human

The precise mechanics of human sexual reproduction are revealed,using new technology to produce previously unseen images.

Cells | Curriculum Bites

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

01: Creation | How to Build a Human

Scientists are now at the pivotal moment of being able to unlock the instructions hidden in the cells of humans.

Cell Division | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Animated shorts to support students preparing for assessments in GCSE Additional Science.

Cell division | i-Science

What is the role of mitosis and meiosis in the human body?

The establishment of Germ Theory | The Cell

This clip explores the revolutionary discovery that diseases are caused by microscopic organisms rather than spontaneous generati...

02: The Chemistry of Life | The Cell

Adam Rutherford explores how scientists delved deeper into the world of the cell, seeking to reveal the magic ingredient that can bring ...

Microbes and Man | Science Topics

Michael Rodd looks at the role of micro-organisms in the production, decomposition and contamination of food. Feat employees of Young's Bre...

Diffusion and Osmosis | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Spec references J247: 2.1a J250: 2.1a. Animated shorts to support students preparing for assessments in GCSE Additional Science.

Protein Synthesis | AS Guru

Programme for AS level students, comprising archive clips and interviews.

03: Off The Scale | Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds

The human eye can see extraordinary detail, but the eye of a needle held at arm's length is pretty much at the limit o...

The process of mitosis | Short Circuit

The process of mitosis, seen through a microscope, and then illustrated and explained with a computer simulation.

S03E11: The Netherlands | Local Heroes

In Delft, Hart-Davis profiles the draper who was the first person to see bacteria through a microscope and the book-keeper whose gravi...

Miniature Britain

Biologist George McGavin goes on a journey around the British Isles to show us the extraordinary little things that are vital to our land. With a revolutio...

03: The Spark of Life | The Cell

Adam Rutherford reveals how scientists are close to repeating what has happened only once in four billion years - the creation of a new life...

01: The Hidden Kingdom | The Cell

Adam Rutherford tells the story of the biological cell. He explores how centuries of scientific and religious dogma were overturned by the ...

S02E05: Size Matters | Dara O'Briain's Science Club

Dara and the team reveal why size matters in science and how discoveries large and small are changing the way we view the...

Mitosis, meiosis and reproduction | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Spec references J247: B2.1b, B5.1f, B5.1h J250: B2.1b, B5.1f. Different steps of mitosis, asexual reproduction, di...

02: Pus | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

Dr Michael Mosley explores our earliest attempts to tackle infection and how scientists, chemists and doctors...

Disease X: Hunting the Next Pandemic

Dr Chris van Tulleken investigates a mysterious virus that could cause the next pandemic, one scientists think will be deadlier than Cov...

Making Sense of Cancer with Hannah Fry

In an award-winning documentary, Hannah Fry takes a personal look at the issues surrounding how we screen for and treat cancer, asking...

Infested! Living with Parasites

Dr Michael Mosley explores the bizarre and fascinating world of parasites by turning his body into a living laboratory and deliberately infes...

HIV | The Truth About...

Dr Chris van Tulleken explores the latest science around HIV, meeting health professionals, scientists, and individuals affected by it in the UK and...

Ultra-Processed Food: A Recipe for Ill Health? | Panorama

Ultra-processed foods contain chemicals that regulators say are safe, but there is emerging evidence of a link betw...

01: Pain | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

Michael Mosley discovers what pain is and how we were able to control it with the discovery of morphine at t...

Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine

Fleming initially discovered the antibacterial properties of mould that would lead to the disc...

White blood cells and the 'war' on infection | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Alice explains how white blood cells fight infection and where they come from.

Edward Jenner's First Vaccination | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer

The story of Edward Jenner's discovery that deliberately infecting someone with cowpox could...

How do vaccines protect the population? | Horizon

Hannah Fry demonstrates how vaccines help to protect human populations and provide protection to those that cannot receive ...

01: Anaesthesia | Medical Mavericks

Michael Mosley explores the work of the pioneering doctors who laid the foundations of modern medicine. He begins by charting the develop...

02: Discovering Vaccines | Medical Mavericks

Michael Mosley explores how pioneering doctors learnt to harness the immune system by exposing themselves to incurable diseases ...

Malaria: Return to Fever Road

Documentary which reveals the harsh realities of malaria within a rural Kenyan village community, highlighting man's endless fight against a di...

Antibiotics | The Truth About...

Documentary in which Angela Rippon looks into the new ways that scientists are trying to fight bacterial infections, as they try to combat a...

02: Medical Drugs | Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer

Documentary series about the effect of medicine on life expectancy. How knowledge gained from the discovery ...

03: Poison | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

Dr Michael Mosley explores how scientists went from finding antidotes to poisons to applying poisons as cu...

The immune system and white blood cells | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Alice describes how the immune system works and what white blood cells do when we're ill.

03: Diet and Disease | Medical Mavericks

Dr Michael Mosley explores the lengths to which pioneering doctors have gone to uncover the connections between what we eat and what...

Episode 5 | Your Body Uncovered with Kate Garraway

Kate and Guddi meet Miriam, a young woman with debilitating endometriosis, as she comes face to face with the source of he...

Charles Darwin And The Tree Of Life

David Attenborough is a passionate Darwinian, and sees evolution as the cornerstone of all the programmes and series he has ever made. He...

S02E03:...about Evolution | James May's Things You Need To Know

You might relish cabbage about as much as a two-month bout of chickenpox, but would you consider it as a leaf...

Selective breeding | Countryfile

For thousands of years we have been selectively breeding farm animals to make them more and more productive. But in recent years there has b...

The Gene Revolution: Changing Human Nature | Storyville

The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn't digital, it's biological. What will CRISPR mean for human evolu...

Genetically Modified Papaya | Bang Goes the Theory

An examination of the need for, and the potential issues with, the genetic modification of papayas in Hawaii.

05: What Is the Secret of Life? | The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion

How the secret of life has been examined through the prism of the most complex organism know...

02: Born Equal? | Andrew Marr on Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Andrew Marr explores Darwin's impact on politics and society, including how the theory of natural selection has been...

IVF | How Science Changed Our World

Professor Robert Winston meets families who benefitted from breakthrough's in research which lead to IVF treatments.

How does inheritance work? | Dara O'Briain's Science Club

The structure of DNA | The Cell

Adam Rutherford explains and illustrates the structure of DNA, and the way its discovery revealed the secret of how genes are reproduced when...

A World Without Down's Syndrome?

Documentary about Down's syndrome and the ethics of pregnancy screening, exploring the thinking around the proposed new screening test and i...

01: The Book of Life | The Gene Code

Adam Rutherford explores how the entire human genome was decoded, discovering that every human carries the entire story of life on earth...

01: What Is Life? | Wonders of Life

In the world's most volcanic region, South East Asia, Prof Brian Cox explores the thin line that separates the living from the dead, posi...

01: Body and Soul | Andrew Marr on Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Andrew Marr explores how Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has taken on a life of its own far beyo...

Your Inner Monkey | Your Inner Fish: An Evolution Story

It took more than 350 million years for the human body to take shape. Anatomist Neil Shubin reveals how our bodies ar...

Darwin | Bitesize Secondary

A selection of clips taken from BBC programmes about Darwin and evolutionary biology. The programme includes material on adaptation and natural s...

The Human Genome Project | How Science Changed Our World

Professor Robert Winston explores how the Human Genome Project and gene therapy could help revolutionise diagnosis, ...

Embryonic stem cells | i-Science

Stem cell research raises ethical issues, which makes some people uncomfortable about it, in spite of the potential benefits.

06: The Human Race | Bellamy Rides Again

Having examined the earth's life-support systems, David Bellamy turns his attention to the human beings who depend upon them. Every ...

03: The Will to Win | Human Instinct

He explores the drive to succeed, looking at how different chemicals are released into the brain when we win or lose, and learning about...

Alcohol | The Truth About...

A&E doctor Javid Abdelmoneim is on a mission to find out the truth about alcohol, including why the government cut the recommended weekly limit ...

Healthy Eating | The Truth About...

Documentary in which Fiona Phillips teams up with leading scientists to investigate how people can eat and drink themselves to good health.

Disease X: Hunting the Next Pandemic

Dr Chris van Tulleken investigates a mysterious virus that could cause the next pandemic, one scientists think will be deadlier than Cov...

02: Growing | The Private Life of Plants

David Attenborough continues his incredible journey into the world of plants. Remarkable time-lapse photography reveals how new leav...

01: Creation | Inside the Human Body

Using state-of-the-art graphics, Michael Mosley shows the sequence of biological events that lead to human birth.

The pollination process | The Private Life of Plants

David Attenborough describes the process of pollination and how this helps plants reproduce.

Anatomy of the heart | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Alice examines a pigs heart and describes how it works in human terms.

The changes to red blood cells when oxygen is added | The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley

Michael Mosley pumps oxygen through a blood sample, demonstrating th...

S02E04: The Stomach and Intestines | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Dr Alice Roberts peers inside her own stomach by swallowing a tiny camera, then uses dissection and so...

02: First to Last | Inside the Human Body

Michael Mosley shows how, from its first breath to its last, the body performs countless small miracles to stay alive.

Guts: The Strange and Wonderful World of the Human Stomach

Michael Mosley lays bare the mysteries of the digestive system and reveals a complexity and intelligence in the hu...

Diabetes: The Hidden Killer | Panorama

An investigation into the health epidemic that afflicts almost one in ten people in Birmingham and can lead to heart failure, blindnes...

S01E03: Heart | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Health documentary series with anatomist Dr Alice Roberts. This week she tests a heart under stress.

Flight of the bumblebee | The Private Life of Plants

David Attenborough explores the role of insects, especially bees, in the pollination process.

The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley

Michael Mosley gives up a fifth of his own blood to perform six bold experiments. From starving it of oxygen to injecting ...

Kidneys, Urine and Hydration | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Alice explains what the kidneys do in relation to urine and how drinking certain things can affect our hydra...

The function of platelets | The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley

Michael Mosley conducts an experiment to demonstrate blood clotting, and explains the role of ...

03: Flowering | The Private Life of Plants

David Attenborough continues his incredible journey into the world of plants. He reveals how flowers use colours and perfumes for ...

The life cycle of a red blood cell | Inside the Human Body

Using state-of-the-art graphics, Michael Mosley shows the journey of a red blood cell through the body.

02: Survive | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed

Chris and Xand van Tulleken look at what keeps the human body alive, including reflexes, damage repair mechanisms...

03: Jungles | Planet Earth II

Jungles provide the richest habitats on the planet - mysterious worlds of high drama where extraordinary animals attempt to survive in the most...

Amazon deforestation | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin witnesses the devastation of the Amazon rainforest from the sky.

David Attenborough's 100 Years on Planet Earth

A 90-minute special, broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall, London, celebrating Sir David Attenborough's groundbreaking career ...

04: Deserts | Planet Earth II

The world's deserts force animals to come up with ingenious ways of coping with hostile conditions, giving rise to the most incredible survival...

06: Coasts | Blue Planet II

The wildlife series narrated by David Attenborough explores the planet's coasts. They are the most changeable of the ocean worlds, but they offer...

01: Kalahari | Africa

David Attenborough explores two deserts in Africa's south west, where he encounters meerkats, black rhinos, giant insects and the greatest giraffe batt...

04: Desert Worlds | The Green Planet

Desert plants spend decades in suspended animation waiting for rain, or they travel to find it. They survive using weapons, camouflage a...

01: Tropical Worlds | The Green Planet

Tropical rainforests are plant battlegrounds. New filming techniques allow us to enter the world of plants to see it from their perspe...

01: Coasts | Planet Earth III

Sir David Attenborough explores the dangerous frontiers created by the world's coasts, where animals fight for survival amidst constant change.

Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

From colossal farms in America to the destruction of the Amazon, Liz Bonnin investigates how our hunger for meat is killing our planet.

Cotton production and the Aral Sea crisis | Stacey Dooley Investigates

Stacey Dooley visits the Aral Sea Basin in Kazakhstan, which has almost entirely dried up due to cotto...

07: The Greatest Show on Earth | Africa

The best moments from the breathtaking series 'Africa'. Black rhinos reveal a lighter side to their character as they gather around a...

02: Savannah | Africa

David Attenborough takes a breathtaking journey through Africa, looking at the constantly changing landscape of east Africa and creatures found nowhere...

Hatchling marine iguana chased by snakes | Planet Earth II

Hatchling marine iguanas race to avoid being caught by the waiting snakes.

03: Congo | Africa

David Attenborough's breathtaking journey through Africa. In the Congo, animals must stand up and fight for their patch, and head off stiff competition.

05: Deserts | Planet Earth

David Attenborough looks at deserts around the world from Namibia to Chile, unravelling the secrets behind desert survival and revealing their eph...

Extinction: The Facts

With a million species at risk of extinction, David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, including puttin...

08: Jungles | Planet Earth

David Attenborough's natural history series. This episode looks at the tropical rainforests, which are home to a staggering 50 per cent of the wor...

Return of the Emperors | Dynasties

Emperor penguins return to the newly-frozen sea ice to breed.

07: Our Blue Planet | Blue Planet II

David Attenborough explores the issues behind the series' most spectacular stories and examines the future of the planet.

Calories | The Truth About...

Dr Chris van Tulleken investigates Britain's favourite foods to discover the truth about calories and shows how we can all be healthier by eati...

Getting Fit | The Truth About...

Michael Mosley teams up with scientists whose latest research is turning common knowledge about fitness on its head to separate fact from fi...

Photosynthesis | Curriculum Bites

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

Respiration | Curriculum Bites

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

How iodine was used to discover starch in plant leaves | Botany: A Blooming History

How botanists made the connection between a plant's growth and the energy from the sun.

An introduction to photosynthesis | Short Circuit

An introduction to how plants photosynthesise using chlorophyll, and how important the process is in maintaining the balanc...

Photosynthesis | Knowhow

Know how plants help us breathe?

01: Life From Light | How to Grow a Planet

How plants have driven the greatest changes to the Earth. Prof Iain Stewart shows how they first harnessed light from the sun and ...

How commercial growers apply knowledge of photosynthesis | Botany: A Blooming History

Spec references J247: B1.4e J250: B1.4e. How commercial growers increase the amount of ...

Photosynthesis research by Julius von Sachs | Botany: A Blooming History

Spec references J247: B1.4d. Experiment by Julius von Sachs which involves testing for starch in lea...

Photosynthesis research by Jan Ingenhouz | Botany: A Blooming History

Spec references J247: B1.4d J250: B1.4d. How Jan Ingenhouz researched photosynthesis by putting plants ...

Breathing | Curriculum Bites

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

02: Photosynthesis | Botany: A Blooming History

The air we breathe, and all the food we eat, is created from water, sunlight, carbon dioxide and a few minerals. That's it, n...

Photosynthisis | Bitesize Science

Photosynthesis is essential to life on this planet.

The Lungs | Made of Stronger Stuff

Psychologist Kimberley Wilson and Dr Xand van Tulleken take a journey around the human body. In this episode it's the turn of the airbags,...

Generation of clean fuels | Botany: A Blooming History

Scientists harnessing the processes in photosynthesis.

Calvin-Benson cycle | Botany: A Blooming History

How Benson and Calvin established the biochemical reactions involved in photosynthesis.

How photosynthesis is vital to the success of farming | Science of the Harvest

Stefan Gates reveals how we can see photosynthesis in action using some simple props.

Rate of photosynthesis | i-Science

Photosynthesis is the chemical reaction through which plants make glucose and oxygen. It is crucial to all life on Earth because it is the...

Trees and carbon dioxide | Making Scotland's Landscape

The important role that trees play in clearing carbon dioxide.

The Menopause | The Truth About...

Mariella Frostrup shares her own experience of the menopause and brings this great taboo out into the open, investigating how the latest s...

Hormone Hell | Body Chemistry

Bodily hormones tell us it's still the Stone Age and that if life was simpler, such torments as puberty, PMT and the menopause wouldn't be a pr...

How does inheritance work? | Dara O'Briain's Science Club

Getting Fit at Home | The Truth About...

Mehreen Baig delves into the latest science on home fitness. She reveals why six minutes per week could be enough and why doing too ...

Rob Burrow: Living with MND

Rob Burrow, one of Rugby League’s greatest players, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in late 2019. This documentary illustrates the love,...

S02E02: Female Reproductive Organs | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

Dr Alice Roberts turns her attention to the female reproductive organs where she uses an MRI scanner t...

S01E01: Reproduction | Dara O'Briain's Science Club

Dara O Briain and a team of experts look at the world of reproduction and inheritance. Comedian Ed Byrne discovers just h...

01: Challenges of Life | Life

David Attenborough examines how living long enough to breed is a monumental struggle, and how many animals and plants go to extremes to give th...

How the body maintains temperature | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed

Spec references J247: B3.3b. Experiment to observe change in temperature and how it affect...

Let's Talk About Periods | Newsround Specials

Half of the world's population have periods - yet people are often embarrassed to talk about them. Lauren Layfield meets expert...

Homeostasis | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Spec references J247: B3.3a, B3.3b, B3.3c, B3.3d, B3.3e, B3.3g, B3.3j. Higher paper content for homeostasis. Structure of the kidney, ho...

The body's response to extreme cold | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed

How do our bodies react and respond when we dive into freezing water?

An Introduction to Homeostasis | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed

We live on a knife edge, and we are amazingly good at doing it. Chris van Tulleken gives a sim...

How the body keeps warm in cold environments | Inside the Human Body

Using state-of-the-art graphics, Michael Mosley shows what happens in our bodies when we get cold.

The Fantastical World of Hormones with Professor John Wass

Expert John Wass presents a documentary telling the story of how hormones were discovered and remain at medicine's...

Dementia | The Truth About...

Angela Rippon investigates Alzheimer's disease. She learns how people can help to prevent it, meets some of those who are living with it and ex...

S02E01: Male Reproductive Organs | Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young

In the first of a new series, Dr Alice Roberts explains how the male reproductive organs work and has ad...

Homestasis in Humans | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Spec references J247: B3.3g, B3.3i, B3.3j. Summary of homeostasis including removal of waste products, managing water levels, t...

Fear Response | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed

Chris van Tulleken accompanies some snake hunters at work, showing what happens inside our bodies when we exper...

How the body responds to extreme temperatures | The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed

Chris van Tulleken uses a miniature thermometer to explore what happens to his ...