Electricity and the Atomic scale | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Duration: 3'09''

Synopsis

Jim Al-Khalili explores how Ernest Rutherford's work on the atom revealed what electricity was on the atomic scale.

Further Information

More clips from Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

3: Revelations and Revolutions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

3: Revelations and Revolutions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'04''

Jim Al-Khalili concludes by looking at how, if we could understand the secret of electrical supercon...

Crystal Junctions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Crystal Junctions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'46''

Jim Al-Khalili explores the race between scientists to create a reliable way to amplify electrical signals, and i...

Electromagnetic waves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electromagnetic waves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'28''

Jim Al-Khalili explains Michael Faraday's theory that any electrical charge can create a forcefield surroundi...

Resistance | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Resistance | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'44''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how, as we made microchips smaller, the electrical feature of resistance was becoming more probl...

Semiconductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Semiconductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 2'44''

Jim Al-Khalili explores how JC Bose and his wave detector made use of crystals to conduct electricity.

Semiconductors and WWII | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Semiconductors and WWII | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'15''

Jim Al-Khalili explains the importance of semiconductors, particularly with regard to fighting WWII.

Superconductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Superconductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'01''

Jim Al-Khalili looks at how, in 1986, IBM researchers discovered a breakthrough regarding superconductivity in cera...

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'11''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how physics professor Oliver Lodge proved Maxwell's theory that electrom...

Valves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Valves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 2'21''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how William Crooks experimented with sending electrical currents through a vacuum.

More resources about Atomic Structure

2: Marie Curie's Radium | The Six Experiments That Changed The World

2: Marie Curie's Radium | The Six Experiments That Changed The World

Channel 4 | 2000 | 24'26''

From Galileo to Einstein, from Faraday to Mendel: modern scientists try to recreate the seminal experime...

2: What is the World Made Of? | The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion

2: What is the World Made Of? | The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion

BBC Two | 2010 | 58'35''

Michael Mosley explores how history shaped science. Here, he looks at how atomic theories and ...

Alpha particles | Chemistry: A Volatile History

Alpha particles | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 3'55''

Rutherford stated the fact that most alpha particles go straight through foil is evidence for the atom being mostly empty spa...

An Alpha, Beta and Gamma of Radioactivity | Short Circuit

An Alpha, Beta and Gamma of Radioactivity | Short Circuit

BBC Two | 1998 | 24'14''

Bringing chemistry, physics and biology to life using real-life examples, 3D graphics and practical experiments.

Chemical weapons | Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility

Chemical weapons | Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility

BBC Four | 2016 | 1'53''

Introducing the idea of chemical and biological weapons, leading onto pathogens.

Chernobyl disaster | Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb

Chernobyl disaster | Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb

BBC Four | 2016 | 3'25''

Introduction to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the temporary construction that was built to contain the radiation.

Discovery of the Neutron | Atom

Discovery of the Neutron | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 1'50''

Spec references J248: C1.2d, C1.2e J250: C1.2d, C1.2e. Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains how James Chadwick discovered the neutron. This solv...

Half-life | Short Circuit

Half-life | Short Circuit

BBC Two | 2009 | 58''

Spec references J249: P6.1j, P6.2b J250: P4.3j. Explanation and animation - Nuclear decay is random. Half-life.

History of the Atom: From Rutherford to Bohr | Chemistry: A Volatile History

History of the Atom: From Rutherford to Bohr | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 3'00''

Spec references J248: C1.2a J250: C1.2a. Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains the history of the at...

Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility

Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility

BBC Four | 2016 | 59'00''

Michael Mosley investigates Porton Down, Britain's most secretive and controversial military research base. He...

Lab demonstration of alpha beta gamma penetration properties. | Short Circuit

Lab demonstration of alpha beta gamma penetration properties. | Short Circuit

BBC Two | 2009 | 56''

Spec references J249: P6.1l J250: P4.3l. Laboratory demonstration of the penetration propertie...

Nuclear fusion | Atom

Nuclear fusion | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 1'18''

Sunlight is created by nuclear fusion in the Sun when two protons are fused together.

Nuclear radiation - what are alpha, beta and gamma radiation? | Curriculum Bites

Nuclear radiation - what are alpha, beta and gamma radiation? | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 1'38''

Spec references J249: P6.1d J250: P4.3d. Animation and explanation of alpha, beta and gamma ...

Nuclear structure | Curriculum Bites

Nuclear structure | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 1'53''

Spec references J249: P6.1a, P6.1d J250: P4.3a,P4.3d. Animation and description of nuclear structure of unstable nucleus (francium).

Radioactive particle clean up mission | Bang Goes the Theory

Radioactive particle clean up mission | Bang Goes the Theory

BBC One | 2011 | 3'24''

Following a leak of thousands of radioactive particles in the 60's, a team at Dounreay are attempting to find an...

Radioactivity | Curriculum Bites

Radioactivity | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 6'33''

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

Radioactivity | Short Circuit

Radioactivity | Short Circuit

BBC Two | 2009 | 18'43''

Bringing chemistry, physics and biology to life using real-life examples, 3D graphics and practical experiments.

Radium | Chemistry: A Volatile History

Radium | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 3'11''

Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie.

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 3'01''

George Gamow believed that helium existed in the universe before the sun and the stars were formed.

The discovery of nuclear fission | Atom

The discovery of nuclear fission | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 5'05''

Scientists in the 1930's toyed with neutrons colliding with nucleai and were excited at the thought that such experiments could creat...

More from Jim Al-Khalili

1: Discovering the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

1: Discovering the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 58'53''

The story of how the elements were discovered and mapped begins with the alchemists who questioned that the world...

Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives

Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives

BBC Four | 2017 | 1'20''

Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains Einstein's analogy of gravity that he told his son to explain his...

Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

BBC Four | 2015 | 3'20''

Nuclear physicist Professo...

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific

BBC Radio 4 | 2015 | 26'54''

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her research on the developing teenage brain.

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'11''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how physics professor Oliver Lodge proved Maxwell's theory that electrom...

Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon

Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon

BBC Two | 2011 | 57'29''

Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nu...

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam

BBC Four | 2009 | 3'40''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how our numerical system spread to Europe through the work of the Arabic mathematician ...

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 3'01''

George Gamow believed that helium existed in the universe before the sun and the stars were formed.

Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites

Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 3'06''

Spec references J248: C3.4b J250: C3.4b. Professor Jim Al-Khalili recreates the electrolysis experiment that lead to...