Greenwich Special on BBC 4 Hats off to those responsible for communicating both the historic and future significance of Royal Observatory Greenwich in its special anniversary year as BBC TV have dedicated a programme to the very subject, giving us behind-the-scenes insight into the world-leading institution. On June 9 BBC 4 ran a Sky at Night TV programme – Greenwich: A journey Through Space and Time. You can join the scientific time team on an exciting journey through space and time thanks to BBC iPlayer. In the times of the early Astronomers Royal, scientists would gather at spectacular dinner parties at Flamsteed House to share ideas and discuss the universe. The programme makers recreated such a glittering gathering with Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock meeting with astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethhurst, astronomer Peter B Lawrence, historian of science Dr Rebekah Higgitt and theoretical physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili. In the entertaining film, the professor provides a quantum approach to time, probing why it is that we exist in a universe where time seems destined to flow in only one direction – forwards. He makes the point that you can bake a 350th anniversary cake but you cannot un-bake it! Chris Lintott interviews Professor Claudia de Rham about the most extreme regions of the cosmos - those that rip holes in space-time, where Einstein’s theory is destined to fail - sparking new theories of quantum gravity dating back to the birth of the universe itself. This is a rapid travel in time where historical clocks are examined alongside string theory, gravitational time dilation and even spaghettification! You will definitely come away feeling enlightened as the stories are so light-hearted and well explained. The Clocktime team enjoyed every minute!
