The Day the Universe Changed

Season

1985

Finland

9.1

James Burke explores key moments in Western History where new knowledge in science changed the way the modern Western world thinks.

Episode List

The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks

S1 • E1

The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks

The Ancient Greece based origins of modern Western Civilization's primary value of individuality driven curiosity that drives it to question and explore reality.

In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith and Reason

S1 • E2

In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith and Reason

Introduction of the knowledge from captured Islamic Spanish libraries transforms the Europe's conception of knowledge and the fact that it can advance.

Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance

S1 • E3

Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance

The introduction of perspective techniques transforms Europe's use of art, architecture, geography and navigation among others with its revolutionary concept of remote positioning.

A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge

S1 • E4

A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge

The introduction of practical mass printing ends Europe's predominate reliance on memory and its related concepts of reality and authority.

Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens

S1 • E5

Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens

The Catholic Counter-Reformation inadvertently sparks the Scientific Revolution that begins to profoundly challenge Europe's concept of the universe and the authority of the Church.

Credit Where It's Due: The Factory and Marketplace Revolution

S1 • E6

Credit Where It's Due: The Factory and Marketplace Revolution

The rise of land enclosure and advances in engineering help transform the West's major economic philosophies.

What the Doctor Ordered: Social Impacts of New Medical Knowledge

S1 • E7

What the Doctor Ordered: Social Impacts of New Medical Knowledge

The advance of modern medicine and public health comes at the cost of the fields becoming depersonalized with their increasing use of statistics and microbiology.

S1 • E8

Fit to Rule: Darwin's Revolution

The introduction of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution undermines the concept of divine creation while providing a rationale for both capitalism and communism.

Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised

S1 • E9

Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised

As modern theoretical physics becomes more ambiguous in nature, the Western lay public increasingly confuses advances in engineering with pure science.