Why are there no blue roses?

Precision: The Measure of All Things

Professor Marcus du Sautoy - who is effectively a numerical evangelist, as well as a master storyteller - once again takes an unappetising premise and turns it into educational gold. 

'Precision: The Measure of All Things' explores humanity's obsession with compartmentalising the environment into ever-more-precise units of measurement - from the first cave paintings of the Cro-Magnons, to today's atomic clocks. In the first edition, du Sautoy charts the history of the metre and the second, and examines scientists' continuing efforts to redefine how time and length are quantified.

To find out more about the series, follow this link.

School of Hard Sums

If you're not watching this, you should be.

Dara O Briain on the importance of Maths:

“Maths is the language in which the universe is written. It’s innate to the human brain and is a spectacular thing that we’ve discovered/invented. Also it permeates our lives. If you have to discuss something in terms of its utility, we’re moving increasingly to being a technological society and therefore you need to be conversant with it. But in all honesty, I am over discussing things in terms of their utility, as if education is just training for jobs – it isn’t.

"I encounter the same argument in teaching obscure languages: it fires neurons in different ways, helps you with problems. The example I quote is if people really understood probability, they’d save a lot of money on lottery tickets.”

The Genius of Invention

"What does the name Thomas Newcomen mean to you? Not much, I’ll bet," claims the Radio Times website.

Now if you've read Match With With the Kids, then you will already know that Newcomen’s Engine was the first practical steam engine, devised to pump water out of Cornish tin mines.

Newcomen was a Devon ironmonger in the early 18th century who designed the first reliable steam engine but because James Watt improved the design half a century later, Watt is the name that most people remember.

How their ideas evolved and what they led to (i.e. the Industrial Revolution) is the subject of a wonderfully educational programme, The Genius of Invention, and it starts tonight on BBC2 at 9.00pm.

Things you need to know about the human brain

I'm loving James May's new series and this episode (all about the human brain) is both fascinating and highly entertaining.

You can watch the programme here via the wonders of the BBC iPlayer - not to mention those of your own visual cortex.

She Wolves: England's Early Queens

Helen Castor explores the role of queens in medieval and Tudor England, analysing how they evolved from being the wives of kings to powerful figures in their own right - but faced great struggles to impose their authority in a male-dominated society.

She begins by recalling the life of Matilda, the daughter of Henry I, who waged war against her cousin Stephen in the mid-12th century in a bid to be recognised as her father's rightful successor. The historian also charts the turbulent life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of Henry II, who played a major role in governing England during the latter half of the 12th century.

To find out more about this exciting new BBC4 series, click here.

Empress Matilda

(about to watch She Wolves on her iPad... I think)

Illuminations - a most enlightening experience

If you've not yet seen Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings, written and presented by Dr Janina Ramirez, then you've missed a treat. Over three luxurious hours Dr Janina unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings and explores the medieval world they reveal.

And just like the marvellous manuscripts she studies, decoding the complex imagery hidden within every border decoration and illuminated letter, Dr Janina is a rare treasure herself. She is a born communicator, brimming with passion and enthusiasm for her subject. Her insightful ideas regarding what medieval manuscripts say about the people who commissioned them, as well as the times in which they were written, make this one of the most accessible and absorbing History programmes in years.

So don't delay, follow this link, and watch it today!

If you'd like to lock the series away in your own library of wonders, you'll be pleased to hear that the DVD is available now from the British Library online shop.

From the Children of the Middle Ages to the Private Lives of Medieval Kings

There have been some great history programmes on the BBC lately. First up there's Dr Stephen Baxter's Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages.

And then there's Dr Janina Ramirez's Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings.

If you have any interest in medieval history, or British history in general, you should check them both out.

And starting next Wednesday at 9.30pm on BBC2 are The Crusades, this time with Dr Thomas Asbridge.

What's the story, Morning Glory?

Morning Glory got a mention on QI tonight. No, not that sort of morning glory! This particular case of morning glory...

I wrote about the Morning Glory in Match Wits with the Kids three years ago.

Did you know...?
Some clouds form due to interactions with particular geographical features. One of the strangest of these is the geographically-specific cloud Morning Glory (I kid you not!). It is a rolling, cylindrical cloud which appears unpredictably over the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia. Due to a powerful ‘ripple’ in the atmosphere, it is possible to ‘surf’ the cloud in an unpowered glider.

Oh, and it's as long as the UK!

One to watch... The Normans

The BBC's 'The Normans' series of programmes may have already begun, but it's worth playing catch up if you haven't been with the series since the start, if only because the wonderful Professor Robert Bartlett is back on our screens, with this.

Escape in Time

A new show for all you History buffs out there starts today on BBC2. It might be one to catch on iPlayer later or to set the Sky+ box to record as it's on at 4.30pm, but it looks intriguing.

Series presented by Ben Fogle in which families take up the challenge of becoming Victorian farmers on the Acton Scott Estate in Shropshire. For one week they step back in time to learn the traditional skills of our farming ancestors, competing against each other in daily and weekly challenges: from mucking out the pigs to making a perfect cottage loaf. A host of experts are on hand to judge their handiwork, and the family that wins the most challenges wins that day's prize.

Taking up the challenge are the Doige family from Essex - property developer Christian, office administrator Katherine, 15-year-old Olivia and 12-year-old Chloe - and the Mills family from Twickenham - catering consultant David, full-time mum Jo, 13-year-old Tilly and 10-year-old Jemima.

The children learn a vital part of Victorian farm life, keeping the pigs clean. The mums learn a Victorian bread recipe off by heart and the dads compete to see who can make the most clay bricks in 15 minutes.

You can find out more about the show here.

The Story of Science

Did you catch Michael Mosley's recent BBC 2 series The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion? In it, Mosley took an informative and ambitious televisual journey, exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.


If you missed it you can catch it again here, on BBC iPlayer. I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in science, history, the world around us... basically anyone! There are six programmes in the series:

1) What is Out There?
2) What is the World Made of?
3) How Did We Get here?
4) Can We Have Unlimited Power?
5) What is the Secret of Life?
6) Who Are We?

One to watch...

In Museum of Life, celebrity farmer Jimmy Doherty goes behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum to join the people who are uncovering secrets, solving mysteries and making discoveries among the historic collections.

To Infinity... and Beyond!

Do you know what this is?


No, it's not a drunken number 8, it is, in fact, the symbol for infinity.

Last night's Horizon (BBC 2, 9.00pm) dealt with the concept of infinity - and what a concept it is!

Infinity (symbolically represented by ∞) is a concept in mathematics and philosophy that refers to a quantity without bound or end. (The word comes from the Latin infinitas, meaning 'unboundedness'.) People have developed various ideas throughout history about the nature of infinity. In mathematics, infinity is defined in the context of set theory.

In mathematics, 'infinity' is often used in contexts where it is treated as if it were a number (i.e., it counts or measures things: 'an infinite number of terms'), even though it is not really a number. Oh and there's more than one kind of infinity.

Confused yet? Me too.

So you might want to sit back and watch Horizon's attempt to unravel the mysteries of the infinite. It's is older than time, bigger than the universe and stranger than fiction, and it's on BBC iPlayer here.

How the Earth Made Us

If you have an interest in Geography, or Geology for that matter, and how our planet formed, then you should watch How the Earth Made Us.


In it Professor Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how the planet has shaped our history. With spectacular images, surprising stories and a compelling narrative, the series discovers the central role played in human history by four different planetary forces.

Part 4 (which focuses on Fire) is on BBC 2 tonight, at 9.00pm.

Chemistry - A Volatile History

If you have an interest in science, or chemistry, or simply very well produced factual TV, then you should watch Chemistry: A Volatile History, that's been on BBC 4 recently.

In this three-part series, professor of theoretical physics Jim Al-Khalili traces the extraordinary story of how the elements were discovered and mapped. He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.

Chemistry: A Volatile History is available through BBC iPlayer here.

Seven Ages of Britain - Age of Conquest

Starting tonight on BBC 1...

David Dimbleby tells the story of Britain through its art and treasure. The first part of the chronicle begins with the Roman invasion and ends with the Norman Conquest.

This may sound strangely familiar to readers of Match Wits with the Kids, as in the chapter on History I pick up from where David Dimbley will finish off tonight with '1066 And All That - From Conquest to Constitution (1066-1500)'.

It will be interesting to see what the second Age of Britain will be referred to as.

Anyway, if Seven Ages of Britain sounds like your kind of thing, it's on BBC 1 at 9.00pm tonight.

How long is a piece of string?

You'd think it was a straightforward enough question, but as Alan Davies discovers in tonight's Horizon (BBC 2, 9pm), things are never that straightforward. The programme is full of the sort of fascinating facts we love here at Match Wits.


For example, did you know that if all the space around the molecules in the human body was removed the whole human population on Earth would be reduced to the size of a sugar cube? Also, if you hit a sugar cube in a cupboard (or anywhere dark) you can sometimes see little blue sparks.