Sci­ence and So­ci­ety Lec­ture 5th March 2019

David Attenborough travels to the end of the earth, taking viewers on an extraordinary journey across the polar regions of our planet, North and South.

Spring arrives in the polar regions, and the sun appears after an absence of five months; warmth and life return to these magical ice worlds - the greatest seasonal transformation on our planet is underway.

It is high summer in the polar regions, and the sun never sets. Vast hordes of summer visitors cram a lifetime of drama into one long, magical day; they must feed, fight and rear their young in this brief window of plenty.

For the animals in the polar regions, autumn means dramatic battles and epic journeys. Time is running out - the Arctic Ocean is freezing over and the sea ice is advancing at 2.5 miles per day around Antarctica.

There is no greater test for life than winter, as temperatures plummet to 70 below and winds reach 200kph. Darkness and ice extend across the polar regions and only a few remarkable survivors gamble on remaining.

David Attenborough reveals the vast wildnerness of the polar regions and their inhabitants. At the North Pole, the sun returns after six months of darkness.

David Attenborough journeys to both polar regions to investigate what rising temperatures will mean for the people and wildlife that live there and for the rest of the planet.

This Frozen Planet special brings together the very best highlights of the series, taking viewers on a spectacular journey through the entire polar year - from the depths of winter to the melting world of the polar summer.

Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens.

In the past few years we have shivered through two record-breaking cold winters and parts of the country have experienced intense droughts and torrential floods. It is a pattern that appears to be playing out across the globe.

Professor Iain Stewart examines the powerful geological forces that unleashed the devastating Japanese earthquake, and explores how the release of this power of the planet brought Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown.

Jimmy Doherty, pig farmer, one-time scientist and poster-boy for sustainable food production is on a mission to find out if GM crops really can feed the world.

The film also uncovers the disturbing story of how shipping noise is deafening whales and dolphins, affecting their survival in the future.

In 1992 the nuclear industry celebrated its 50th anniversary and the report on the accident at Chernobyl claimed there was no evidence of long term health effects. Within months, a team of western scientists presented a very different picture with evidence of an epidemic of thyroid cancers in local children.

In 2014, the International Space Station had to move three times to avoid lethal chunks of space debris and there is an increasing problem of satellites mysteriously breaking down. With first-hand accounts from astronauts and experts, Horizon reveals the scale of the problem of space junk.

Professor Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how geology, geography and climate have influenced mankind.In this first episode, Iain explores the relationship between the deep Earth and the development of human civilisation. He visits an extraordinary crystal cave in Mexico, drops down a hole in the Iranian desert and crawls through seven-thousand-year-old tunnels in Israel.

Professor Iain Stewart continues his epic exploration of how the planet has shaped human history.This time he explores our complex relationship with water. Visiting spectacular locations in Iceland, the Middle East and India, Iain shows how control over water has been central to human existence.

Professor Iain Stewart explores the story of our turbulent relationship with the wind.

Iain explores man\'s relationship with fire. He begins by embarking on an extraordinary encounter with this terrifying force of nature - a walk right through the heart of a raging fire.

It\'s easy to think of the human impact on the planet as a negative one, but as this programme discovers, this isn\'t always the case.It is clear that humans have unprecedented control over many of the planet\'s geological cycles; the question is, how will the human race use this power?

We can survive for weeks without food, but only days without water: it is the essential element of life. Yet many millions of us live in parched deserts around the world. In the second episode of Human Planet, we discover how the eternal quest for water brings huge challenges - and ingenious solutions - in the driest places on Earth.

Grasslands feed the world. Over thousands of years, we humans have learned to grow grains on the grasslands and domesticate the creatures that live there. Our success has propelled our population to almost seven billion people.

The rainforest is home to more species of plants and animals than any other habitat on the planet. But for humans, life there is not as easy as it looks. Life in the trees requires great skill, ingenuity and sheer bravery.

Rivers provide the essentials of life: fresh food and water. They often provide natural highways and enable us to live in just about every environment on Earth. But rivers can also flood, freeze or disappear altogether!

The team join Inuit hunters and scientists studying polar bears off the coast of Greenland. Polar bears have become a symbol of climate change as their habitat is threatened. And, at the top of the food chain, they are especially vulnerable to physiological side effects from man-made pollutants.

This programme looks at how evolution has overcome the challenges of being as big as an elephant.