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- Imagine if every time you saw someone called Derek you got a strong taste of earwax in your mouth. It happens to James Wannerton, who runs a pub. Derek is one of his regulars. Another regular's name gives him the taste of wet nappies. For some puzzling reason, James's sense of sound and taste are intermingled. Dorothy Latham sees words as colours. Whenever she reads a black and white text, she sees each letter tinged in the shade of her own multi-coloured alphabet - even though she knows the reality of the text is black and white. Spoken words have an even stranger effect. She sees them, spelled out letter by letter, on a colourful tickertape in front of her head. Both James and Dorothy have a mysterious condition called synaesthesia, in which their senses have become linked. For years scientists dismissed it, putting it in the same category as séances and spoon-bending. But now, synaesthesia is sparking a revolution in our understanding of the human mind.
- No one quite knows what happened in the tropical aquarium of a German zoo two decades ago, but according to biologists, experiments with a tropical seaweed unleashed a hybrid algae which is now decimating marine life in the Mediterranean. It was in the late 1980s that Alexandre Meinesz, a professor of biology at France's University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis on the Mediterranean coast, first detected the spread of a new species of algae along the French coastline. Horizon follows Meinesz on a scientific detective story as he attempts to unravel the source of this alien algae, alert the authorities to the danger and find a solution.
- Horizon examines supermassive black holes and the recent discovery that they are crucial to the formation of galaxies. Supermassive black holes were originally hypothesized to explain active galaxies and quasars, but later were discovered to be at the center of many ordinary galaxies including our own.
- Experts voice their concerns that the Gulf Stream, that vast current of water that keeps us warm, could be cut off, leading Britain to develop a climate similar to Alaska. Our ports could be frozen over and ice storms could ravage the country. Discoveries and developments in Greenland, Russia, the Atlantic and the Arctic have fuelled fears that this climate catastrophe could happen within the next century - or even in 20 years' time. Horizon assesses the evidence.
- As Albert Einstein lay on his deathbed, he asked only for his glasses, his writing implements and his latest equations. He knew he was dying, yet he continued his work. In those final hours of his life, while fading in and out of consciousness, he was working on what he hoped would be his greatest work of all. It was a project of monumental complexity. It was a project that he hoped would unlock the mind of God.
- Millionaire optometrist Robert Graham believed that many intellectuals were dying childless, yet less-intelligent people were constantly reproducing. He wanted to bring thousands of geniuses into the world to ensure the future of the human race. In the early 1980s, he established a Repository for Germinal Choice - a sperm bank stocked full of 'donations' solicited from some of the world's most brilliant men; and he began with Nobel Laureates. This is the story of an endeavor that many agree laid the foundations for modern sperm banks.
- A day in the life of the cigarette. A love of nicotine unites all peoples across the globe, regardless of colour, wealth or creed. Where religion and politics have failed, tobacco has succeeded, but at what cost? For over 50 years people have been knowingly paying for the pleasure of tobacco with their lives, making man's fatal tryst with the cigarette one of the weirdest love affairs ever.
- Horizon examines how observations of supernova in distant parts of the universe has provided evidence of the accelerating expansion of the universe. This new evidence suggests the existence of a new type energy in space which may have significant implications for the ultimate fate of the universe.
- This is a film that demands action. It reveals that we may have grossly underestimated the speed at which our climate is changing. At its heart is a deadly new phenomenon. One that until very recently scientists refused to believe even existed. But it may already have led to the starvation of millions. Tonight Horizon examines for the first time the power of what scientists are calling Global Dimming.
- In the mid-1990s, a team of American science students took on the might of the Las Vegas casinos, and came home with millions of dollars. Hardworking engineering students during the week, they became high-rolling gamblers by the weekend and proved that, in one game at least, the house doesn't always win. The game was blackjack, and the students were from the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their audacious winnings marked the climax of an arms race between casino and player that began 40 years earlier with maths professor Edward Thorp. He realised that the one feature of blackjack that made it different from other casino games also made it possible to beat. In most gambling games - roulette, dice, slot machines, the lottery - events in the past do not determine the future. The odds are the same on every roll of the dice or spin of the wheel. Winning streaks or losing streaks may occur, but they are only one possible result from the set of all possible outcomes. A fair coin that has shown heads ten times, still only has a 50% chance of showing heads on the next flip. Casinos and bookmakers make certain that the odds are always stacked slightly in their favour. In other words, over time, the house will always win. Changing odds Thorp realised that because of the unique way blackjack was played, the odds were not always the same in every round. After each hand is played, the used cards are put to one side, and not shuffled back into the deck. They are effectively removed from the pool of available cards in the next round. So in any given hand, the odds of getting an ace will decrease if an ace has been played in previous rounds. Aces are beneficial to the player, so having a smaller proportion of aces in the deck shifts the odds further in favour of the house. Previous gamblers had realised this fact, but no one had the insight to come up with a practical system to take advantage of this phenomenon. The basic rules of blackjack are simple. To win a round, the player has to draw cards to beat the dealer's total and not exceed a total of 21. The dealer must draw cards until a total of 17 or greater is reached. Thorp calculated that as the game continued and cards were removed after each round, if the remaining deck became richer than average in certain types of cards, it became advantageous to the player. Although the winning margin is still subject to the luck of the draw, this meant that using perfect strategy, with a large bankroll and playing enough hands, the player was more than likely to come out on top. A player would start off each deck playing minimal stakes. Then by keeping track of the cards leaving the deck, they would determine a point when the odds switched in their favour and lay down larger and larger bets as the deck became more and more favourable. Playing perfect basic strategy without card counting, the player's average expectation is between -0.6% and 0%. Using perfect high-low card counting and playing perfect strategy, the player's average expectation is between +0.4 and +1.14%. So a £100 bet will yield on average £101.14 in return, playing a single deck game. Testing the system Thorp announced his strategy at the American Mathematical Society in 1960 and news quickly spread. He was approached by the mysterious 'Mr X', a gambler and businessman with strong links to the underworld, who was eager to see whether his strategy could make real money. Mr X put up $10,000 to test the system. Unaware of Mr X's mobster links, Thorp agreed, and playing according to his strategy in Reno casinos, managed to more than double his bankroll in two days of play! In 1962, Thorp published Beat the Dealer - A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty One. Immediately casinos in Nevada were inundated with wannabe card counters, eager to make a quick buck. Four years later, the second edition outlined the new high-low count, a system with just as much power but easier to use. The casinos, terrified of losing money, decided to change the rules to make life harder for the card counters. They increased the number of decks, they shuffled more often and at one point even changed the winning payoffs. Dealers and pit bosses learned how to spot card counters, and asked anyone suspected of counting to play another game or leave the casino. Life for card counters became increasingly tough, and the counting systems became more complicated in order to try and keep up a marginal edge over the casinos. Card counting became a hazardous and unprofitable occupation. In 1971, Keith Taft, an electronics engineer from California, was frustrated at his low winnings from counting. He decided to develop a portable computer that could count cards for him. With his son Marty, he built 'George', probably the world's first portable computer, specifically to count cards at blackjack. The player tapped in the value of each card played using their toes, and the computer would buzz back the amount to bet and whether to stick or twist each round. The computer was able to calculate precisely the advantage or disadvantage each card gave to the player, and thus accurately predict the optimum playing strategy. The Tafts' computer allowed them to move back to the winning margins that Thorp had enjoyed 10 years earlier. Keen to capitalise on their success, the father and son team set up a home workshop to design and build new computers, which they sold for $10,000 apiece. But it didn't take long for the casinos to catch up with the Tafts. In May 1977, after a long winning streak, Marty Taft was escorted into the backroom of a Nevada casino. Security guards forcibly searched him, found his computer, and sent it away to the FBI. Soon after the law was changed to ban all computing devices in casinos. Raising the stakes In the early 1990s, however, a new breed of counters emerged. They had a greater level of resources, training and attention to detail than the casinos had ever encountered. Semyon Dukach, Katie Lilienkamp and Andy Bloch were all studying at MIT when they heard of card counting as a way to make extra money. MIT had a history of card counting. Indeed, Ed Thorp himself had developed the original system whilst at MIT, using one of the most powerful computers in the world at that time. MIT counters played in teams, usually of three or more. Each individual was given a specific role. Some would simply watch tables, and wait for favourable situations to appear (the 'spotters'). They would call in the expert strategist (the 'controller') who would fine-tune exactly when was the optimum moment to play, and how much to bet according to the cards being played. The controller would secretly signal to a 'big player' who would then join a table and place a massive bet at exactly the right moment. The key was that by only betting when the odds were well in the big player's favour, the big player could maximise potential profit, and also avoid being spotted as a counter. By watching a number of tables at any time, the team could select only those with the greatest promise of a good return. The big player simply looked like a rich, arrogant young gambler who got lucky on a single bet. The MIT players went to great lengths to conceal both their own identities and their team play. They would work relentlessly to exploit any edge they could find - inexperienced dealers, poor shuffling or lax security. They also recorded exactly how much profit they managed to make from each situation, and honed their skills to be incredibly close to optimum play. The trio played blackjack all over the world on and off throughout most of the 1990s, making money wherever they played. Their exploits only came to an end when Griffin Investigations, a private agency hired by casinos, identified the members of the MIT teams after months of surveillance. From that point on a team player even entering a casino would be swiftly ejected. Card counting still occurs wherever blackjack is played, though as casino technology advances it becomes harder and harder to make anything but a small profit. Facial recognition technology, computerised blackjack tables and rule changes are slowly eating away at the small advantage possible through counting. But the lure of easy money makes it unlikely the casinos have seen the last of the counters. For 40 years they have found ways to make profit, and their ingenuity is bound to succeed again.
- Tells the story of the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned copy of an adult mammal, and the scientific possibilities it opens up. Charts the struggle of the scientists Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell and their team at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh to achieve this breakthrough in embryology, and examines the ethical implications raised by cloning.
- Documentary looking at examples of curious aerial and visual phenomena which lead to misinterpretation of ordinary objects, and how simple investigations and techniques such as image enhancement are used to identify them. Interesting concepts introduced which show how human sight may not always see what it thinks it is seeing.
- In America it's an epidemic. Now new evidence raises concern about the UK's use of prescription opioids. Dr Michael Mosley goes on an immersive journey for Horizon to ask what can be done about it. The opioid epidemic has devastated America. But what's the situation here? A new report from Public Health England raises serious concerns about Britain's own relationship with painkillers. Dr Michael Mosley embarks on an immersive journey to Britain's opioid frontline and meets patients struggling with addiction and GPs fighting a constant battle to help those suffering from chronic pain. He also uncovers worrying evidence of people abusing over-the-counter opioids and discovers how easy it is to buy strong opioids online. Nearly six million people in England and Wales were prescribed an opioid last year. Michael wants to uncover how and why we're consuming twice the amount of opioids as twenty years ago, especially when the scientific evidence he encounters disturbingly suggests that for the majority of people taking them for chronic pain, these drugs mostly don't even work. Though a vital tool in our doctors' armoury to combat acute pain and in cancer and end-of-life care, the Public Health England report revealed that more than half a million people have been on opioids for more than three years. Michael cautions that people taking these drugs should not suddenly stop taking them. Nevertheless, as he discovers, long term or high dose use does leave them exposed to greater risk of side effects including dependency, addiction and even accidental death by overdose. So how much do people on the ground really know about these powerful painkillers, which can be many times stronger than heroin? On his travels, Michael meets Karen in Hastings who now believes her five years on increasingly strong opioids 'turned her into a zombie'. But he also encounters Brenda in Salford who thinks the morphine she has taken for fifteen years to help with her excruciating back pain is the thing that makes her life just about bearable. And he spends time with Vicki whose 50+-a-day over-the-counter painkiller habit led to overdose and near death before she finally admitted her addiction and started detox. So how did we get here? Michael discovers one root of our current crisis can be traced to a single100-word letter in a 1980s medical journal. This is the original source (cited more than 600 times in the literature which followed) of claims that opioids given to people in pain couldn't be addictive. Michael admits he himself was taught this at medical school. Yet we now know, it's wrong. Michael shows how this false conviction led to our doctors following national guidelines for decades and offering opioids in increasing strengths to their patients. Michael's journey takes him to Oxford to learn more about the biology of pain. He volunteers for a (painful!) experiment run by Professor Irene Tracey that exposes the fundamental difference between acute and chronic pain and begs important questions about treating these different conditions. He also comes across exciting new science which reveals a tantalising link between mental wellbeing and the experience of pain - offering potential hope for the future on how to tackle pain without drugs. As many as 28 million Britons endure chronic pain - and if we're to kick what seems like a dangerous national opioid habit, Michael believes that the critical issue is deprescribing. Millions now require help coming off opioids and drug-free alternatives to them. For Michael this is nothing short of a challenge as important as the fight against cancer and heart disease. Contributors to the film include experts in pain Dr Jane Quinlan and Dr Cathy Stannard, Chair of the RCGP Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chief Exec of the General Pharmaceutical Council Duncan Rudkin, Salford GPs Dr Nicholas Browne and Dr Tom Hodson, pharmacist Akash Patel and Hastings addiction worker Rob Ralph.
- Series exploring topical scientific issues. The search for extra-terrestrial life has been going for 50 years - but there's been a recent breakthrough. Astronomers have discovered a new planet called Gliese 581 c. It is the most Earth-like planet ever found. It orbits a star and may have habitats capable of supporting life. NASA hopes to find 50 more Earth-like planets by the end of the decade, all of which increases the chance that alien life has begun elsewhere.
- Professor Lesley Regan, one of the UK's most well-respected (and glamorous) medical experts, turns her scientific eye on the world of cosmetics. She's just turned 50, and is out to create an experimentally proven beauty cabinet. Unafraid to examine the wrinkles, age spots and broken veins on her own face, Professor Regan explores just what makes us look old, and if we can slow down the ageing process. The extraordinary world of cosmetic testing is revealed, from the British hair lab which makes New York tap water, to the volunteers sun-bathing for science. Sun damage, cellulite and balding all face Professor Regan's scrutiny as she discovers which cosmetics do - and don't - have the scientific evidence to back up their claims.
- Former Conservative MP, Michael Portillo pushes his body to the brink of death in an investigation into the science of execution. As the American Supreme Court examines whether the lethal injection is causing prisoners to die in unnecessary pain Michael sets out to find a solution which is fundamentally humane. To do so he examines the key methods of execution available today: he discovers why convicts can catch on fire in the electric chair, learns how easy it is to botch a hanging and inhales a noxious gas to experience first hand the terror of the gas chamber. Armed with some startling evidence Michael considers a completely new approach. Will it be the answer? There is only one way of finding out - to experience it himself.
