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Where to watch "Big History"
17. The Big History Of Everything
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Crisscross billions of years of time and space to see how everyone, and everything, is linked in one universal story, and how an epic series of improbable events connected in order to make life possible.
16. Silver Supernova
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At critical moments in history, our second place metal was the most important metal on Earth. Big History reveals how silver's place in our minds was determined by the heat of exploding stars, and how this one metal saved democracy, gave us the dollar, and had a secret power to connect the world.
15. H2O
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Water is the miracle molecule, and mankind has used its perfect properties to revolutionize our lives. It was our first superhighway, the lifeblood of civilization, and gives us 90% of all the power we use today. This episode reveals how the science behind water is the driving force behind history.
14. Rise of the Carnivores
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The human need for beef has driven history across the hemispheres, but how did we turn an ancient mega-beast into the cow we have today? Trace all the beef on earth back to a single prehistoric herd.
13. The Sun
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The Sun is our master and creator, shaping our perception of time and, by extension, powering our lives. Big History sheds new light on our nearest star.
12. Deadly Meteors
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Impacts from space have created our planet and just about everything in it. Like celestial supply ships, they brought in water, metal, and maybe even life. They made our moon and sculpted the geography of our planet, but just as they created everything we know, they will likely snuff it all out in a fiery burst of destruction.
11. Decoded
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Secret codes run the world. The code of life, DNA, is the operating system for all organisms, which spawned intelligent life like us who eventually created codes of our own--language that allows us to talk and the alphabet that lets us write. We've even created an entire digital universe built of binary code that powers the machinery of the modern age. But is it possible that the universe itself runs on code?
10. Pocket Time Machine
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How does the cellphone in your pocket link to the Big Bang, the evolution of human memory, and even the Titanic disaster? Big History reveals how cosmic forces conspired to give us the tool that has revolutionized the planet. From the dial pad to the way we write phone numbers, there's a hidden science behind the cellphone.
9. Mountain Machines
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They form boundaries, create natural defenses, and control our weather. Mountains make civilization possible, yet we were never designed to live in their extreme environments.
8. Brain Boost
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Behind that cup of coffee or tea is a global story that goes back to the collision that created the Moon and the evolution of plant and animal life. The key is the molecule that gives your morning cup its kick: caffeine, the most popular drug in history. This is the story of how a plant poison became our drug of choice, and stimulated revolutions around the planet.
7. World of Weapons
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Humans have small teeth and no claws or armor, so how do we project our power? Warfare has defined traditional history, but Big History digs deeper to reveal how it all began.
6. Defeating Gravity
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From the right kind of air to cosmic forces that keep us from tumbling into space, Earth offers the perfect environment in which to take flight.
5. Megastructures
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From the Great Pyramid at Giza to the towering skyscrapers of today, humans have engineered massive constructions for at least 5,000 years. But why? How do biology and human emotions affect our desire to build gigantic structures? Why were the earliest mega-structures almost always pyramids? Why do people have the urge to build tall, and how do mega-structures on earth echo a basic principle embedded in the very structure of the universe?
4. Below Zero
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Reveals how cold has the power to turn men into Barbarians, spark history's longest running war, and create the concept of race. After the heat of the Big Bang, cold creates the Universe and the planet as we know it. For thousands of years on Earth, cold controls the fate of our species by changing our bodies, our skin, and even the metals we use to fight our wars. When we finally take control of the cold, we learn to dominate the planet.
3. Gold Fever
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This episode asks why mankind is gold crazy, and discovers there's a hard-wired reason we lust after it, and a microscopic explanation for why it shines. We reveal how the science behind our favorite metal drives men across oceans and continents, and how a difference in the way it's used in each hemisphere leads to a clash of civilizations.
2. Horse Power Revolution
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The horse has been a revolutionary animal in unexpected ways. It has changed how we speak, what we wear, and sets the hidden limit for the size of our most massive empires. It's a story that spans the cosmos, from the Big Bang, to the Sun, to a changing planet that turned the horse into man's best friend in the animal kingdom.
1. The Superpower of Salt
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We all know that mankind can't live without air, food and water...the same is true of salt. The salt on your table is a key to unlocking the story of our planet and the cosmos. Big History reveals how this simple molecule underpins our civilization, launched wars, built monuments like the Great Wall of China, sparked revolutions from India to France...and it's even the substance that makes up our thoughts.
