S3 E1 • Feedback

In the twenty-first century, electronic agents will be our servants on the great web of knowledge. They will use the kind of feedback that won World War II. Feedback mathematics is invented to help guns hit their targets. The concept of feedback originated in the vineyards of France by a winemaker and physiologist named Claude Bernard. His ex-wife began the Humane Society, created to save people from drowning. Drownings increased due to an increase in shipping. All of this eventually leads to the hiring of a doctor at a sanitarium in Michigan. The doctor tries out new diets on the patients. The most successful product is named after him -- Kellogg's cornflakes.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E2 • What's in a Name?

A good breakfast leads to corn cob garbage by the ton. This is used for "furfan," and a whole new discipline no one's heard about, called furfan chemistry. Furfan can do amazing things, like creating resin for bonding. This leads to the creation of the tractor and, then the creation of the diesel engine. Believe it or not, James Burke shows how this all leads to the creation of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E3 • Drop the Apple

Smithson, the benefactor of the Smithsonian Institution, discovered the mineral calamine. This mineral is one of the most useful and unusual because it gives off electricity. The secret is in the shape. This was discovered by J. Currie of the famous pair. The first consumer use of this electricity was 33 rpm records. This eventually leads to Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which leads to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E4 • An Invisible Object

This program travels five hundred years into the past and back, to connect mysterious black holes in space with modern fast food, via thrills and spills on the Pony Express, Italian anatomy theaters and stolen corpses, the Sultan of Turkey's disastrous finances, Renaissance German jewelry, the invention of the screw, slide rules and American tobacco plantations, boiled potatoes, Spanish Inquisition thumbscrews, and why beer is served chilled. The show also includes a French Queen's dinner party, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the greatest disaster in history (for wine-drinkers), squeaky-clean Swiss airplanes, and a fifteenth century French barber-shop quartet.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E5 • Life is No Picnic

The advent of modern coffee-vending machines spurs the creation of freeze dried coffee. This begins a revolutionary effort by the U.S. Army in World War II to lighten the soldiers' rations packs. The Star Spangled Banner lyrics are adapted from an ancient Greek poem. Mme de Stael of Switzerland drives the Romantic Movement forward in Europe. The Romantic Movement affects all thinkers which leads to future studies of animal development. Based on this research, Darwin proposes his Theory of Evolution.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E6 • Elementary Stuff

Darwin's Theory of Evolution is shared by Alfred Russel Wallace who has a strong belief in miracles and spiritualism. British interest in spiritualism is shared by physicist Oliver Lodge who develops the coherer, the device that makes radio reception possible. With the Swiss creation of postage stamp, Switzerland becomes the world postal center. Highlanders fearing oppression from Scottish rulers flee to North Carolina where turpentine is developed. The creation of the vacuum pump is instrumental in the discovery of both Boyle's Law and Pierre Perrault's hydrography. Quarrels about whether or not present language/literature is as good as that of the past leads to the fictional character Sherlock Holmes.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E7 • A Special Place

Meet a real live man who changed history with a totally new way of identifying you. Plus a four hundred-year trip through 20 locations. Swedish electricity and Dutch wind tunnels use a new type of photography. Aristocratic World War I fighter aces and their crazy mountain-climbing uncles. Touchy-feely times in Romantic Germany. The mysteries of ancient cities uncovered. Female painters in eighteenth-century London theaters lit by amazing new kinds of lights. Saving sailors from shipwreck and helping Caribbean smugglers. Astronomers, poets, fishermen, mathematicians and skeptics, bird-painters and Russian skullduggery lead the program to a final beauty-spot, where hundreds of Americans get drenched every day.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E8 • Fire from the Sky

How do you go from the majestic beauty of Iceland's geysers to the destruction of the Allied Firebombing of Hamburg in World War II? You stop by Stonehenge, chat with the mystical Caballists, talk to Martin Luther, Ozeander, Tycho Brahe and Mary Queen of Scots, before heading to the magnetic North Pole. The invention of gin and tonic will set you back on course to the discovery that mixing rubber with gasoline makes it burn slower, an integral component of any firebombing. It's all a matter of connections.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E9 • Hit the Water

If you launch your story in the cockpit of a Tornado Fighter Bomber-- the height of "smart bombs" operated by smart pilots -- dip into the history of margarine and plankton, travel to 18th Century Turkey to investigate small pox inoculations, dance at the ballet Copelia, then blow up a dam in Norway with a British commando team, how do you prevent Hitler from building and exploding atomic bombs? Through the infinite world of unexpected connections - an ingenious look at why and how Hitler never harnessed heavy water and the A-Bomb.

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997

S3 E10 • In Touch

An American scientist ponders the problem of nuclear fusion in 1951. This unleashes a series of connections that encompass superconductors, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, King George III, modern oceanography, the Versailles Gardens, Pagoda Mania, and handwriting analysis to arrive at the Global Net. Through this chain of unexpected connections, you, too, can "stay in touch."

Première diffusion : 31 décembre 1997