Horizon: 1996

Episode 1: The Butchers of Boxgrove 1996-01-08 | 60 min Investigates the case of the "Boxgrove Man". Follows archaeologist Mark Roberts who tries to piece together the history of the first Englishman, from a shin bone nearly 500,000 years old, discovered in Boxgrove in Sussex.

Episode 2: Fermat's Last Theorem 1996-01-15 | 60 min Tells the story of mathematician Andrew Wiles who has made it his life's work to solve the puzzle of Fermat's last theorem that has baffled minds for three centuries.

Episode 3: A Miracle for Cancer ? 1996-01-22 | 60 min Examines the latest research aimed at conquering cancer. Includes research into vaccines for prostate cancer and skin cancer.

Episode 4: Nature's Numbers 1996-01-29 | 60 min Follows a group of biologists Conservation International who take a pragmatic approach to what species can be saved.They travel to the Bolivian rainforest to assess missing species.

Episode 5: The Gene Race 1996-02-05 | 60 min Follows two teams of researchers, in Britain and USA as they use radically different genetic techniques in the race to find an effective treatment against cystic fibrosis.

Episode 6: Masters of the Ionosphere 1996-02-12 | 60 min Recounts the history of scientific attempts from Marconi onwards to understand the atmospheric layer, known as the ionosphere. Discusses interest shown by the US Military in the region which has led to the establishment of HAARP (High Altitude Auroral Research Project) which will beam energy directly into the ionosphere.

Episode 7: Assault on the Male (revisited) 1996-02-26 | 60 min Are changes in modern living increasing levels of oestrogen and threatening males of different species, from alligators to humans?

Episode 8: Death by Design 1996-03-04 | 60 min In this Horizon documentary, we look at the notion that each cell in our body is programmed to die. Understanding this concept has major implications for research into disease.

Episode 9: The Planet Hunters 1996-03-11 | 60 min Follows astronomers from Manchester, Switzerland and California as they search for planets with liquid water on them, the prerequisite for life

Episode 10: Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus (Update) 1996-03-25 | 60 min In this episode of Horizon, which is a follow-up to the 1991 documentary, we follow a group of soviet scientists on a suicide mission as they search for the missing nuclear fuel inside the remains of the nuclear reactor 4.

Episode 11: Fallout from Chernobyl 1996-04-01 | 60 min Reports on the work by scientists Dr Keith Baverstock and Sir Dillwyn Williams to confirm that the outbreak of thyroid cancer in children in Belarus and the Ukraine was due to the Chernobyl disaster.

Episode 12: TV is Dead, Long Live TV 1996-11-04 | 60 min In this documentary, Horizon compares the future of television with the years of experimentation before the first BBC broadcasts in 1936.

Episode 13: Aliens from Mars 1996-11-11 | 60 min An investigation into claims that life once existed on Mars. NASA scientists and their critics discuss the fossils discovered in a small meteoric rock in Antarctica earlier in 1996.

Episode 14: Living Death 1996-11-25 | 60 min Looks at new treatments for patients in a persistent vegetative state. Focuses on the case of Geoffrey Wildsmith who was misdiagnosed as being PVS. He had awoken from his coma but was totally paralysed and unable to communicate. After two years he was transferred and it was found he could communicate by using a buzzer connected to a highly sensitive pressure-switch.

Episode 15: The Time Lords 1996-12-02 | 60 min An investigation into claims by researchers that time travel is not only theoretically possible but is already happening.

Episode 16: Noah's Flood 1996-12-16 | 60 min Follows the work of geologists Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman, who for twenty five years have been investigating evidence for the location of the biblical flood and Noah's Ark.

Horizon: 1996

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