Connections (1978) is a documentary web series in English. On MovieLinkBD: full story, cast, ratings, season & episode guide, official trailer and where to watch Connections online in HD.
Connections — Storyline
Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, Connections explores an "Alternative View of Change" that rejects the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. To demonstrate this view, Burke begins each episode with a particular event or innovation in the past (usually ancient or medieval) and traces a path from that event through a series of connections to a fundamental and essential aspect of the modern world.
Cast & Crew
- Created by: James Burke
- Starring: James Burke
Connections — Series Details
| First Air Date | 1978-10-17 |
| Seasons | 3 |
| Episodes | 40 |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Language | English |
| Network | BBC One, TLC |
| Status | Ended |
| Rating | 8.2/10 (14 votes) |
Connections — Episode Guide
Connections
- E1: The Trigger Effect (1978-10-17) — Both the beginning and the end of the story are here. The end is our present dependence on complex technological networks illustrated by the NYC power blackouts. Life came almost t
- E2: Death In The Morning (1978-10-24) — How did a test of gold's purity revolutionize the world 2500 years ago and lead to the atomic bomb? Standardizing precious metal in coins stimulated trade from Greece to Persia, ca
- E3: Distant Voices (1978-10-31) — Telecommunications exist because the Normans wore stirrups at the Battle of Hastings- a simple advance that caused a revolution in the increasingly expensive science of warfare. Eu
- E4: Faith in Numbers (1978-11-07) — Each development in the organization of systems (political, economic, mechanical, electronic)influences the next, by logic, by genius, by chance, or by utterly unforeseen events. T
- E5: The Wheel of Fortune (1978-11-14) — The power to see into the future with computers originally rested with priest-astronomers who knew the proper times to plant and harvest. The constellations influenced life spectac
- E6: Thunder In The Skies (1978-11-21) — A dramatically colder climate gripped Europe during the 13th century profoundly affecting the course of history for the next seven centuries. The changes in energy usage transforme
- E7: The Long Chain (1978-11-28) — Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic trade routes. Competing British lines induced Am
- E8: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (1978-12-05) — When Napoleon marched huge forces across Europe, he needed an efficient way to store provisions. A Frenchman preserved sterilized food in empty champagne bottles, an idea modified
- E9: Countdown (1978-12-12) — What happens when you combine a carbon arc light, a billiard ball coating, a spoked wheel and consecutive images? Motion pictures! Complex and sometimes incredible events led to Th
- E10: Yesterday, Tomorrow, and You (1978-12-19) — "Why did we do it this way?" Essential moments from the previous programs are reviewed to illustrate the common factors that make for change. Will they go on operating to affect ou
Connections²
- E1: Revolutions (1994-01-02) — What do all these things have in common—three grandfathers' lifetimes, two revolutions, 1750 Cornish steam engines for Cornwall's tin mines, water in mines, pumps, steam engines, W
- E2: Sentimental Journeys (1994-01-16) — What do these have in common – Freud, lifestyle crisis, electric shock therapy, hypnotherapy, magnetism, phrenology, penology, physiology, synthetic dyes, the Bunsen burner, absorp
- E3: Getting it Together (1994-02-06) — James Burke explains the relationship between hot air balloons and laughing gas, and goes on to surgery, hydraulic-water gardens, hydraulic rams, tunneling through the Alps, the Or
- E4: Whodunit? (1994-02-20) — This episode starts with a billiard ball and ends with a billiard ball. Along the way, Burke examines Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica, how mining supported war, the role of mon
- E5: Something for Nothing (1994-03-06) — How do space shuttle landings start with the vacuum which was forbidden by the Church? Burke takes us on an adventure with barometers, weather forecasting, muddy and blacktop roads
- E6: Echoes of the Past (1994-03-20) — The past in this case starts with the tea in Dutch-ruled India, examines the Japanese tea ceremony, Zen Buddhism, porcelain, the architecture of Florence, Delftware, Wedgwood, Free
- E7: Photo Finish (1994-04-03) — Another series of discoveries examined by Burke includes Eastman Kodak's Brownie, the disappearing elephant scare of 1867, billiard balls, celluloid as a substitute for ivory, fals
- E8: Separate Ways (1994-04-17) — Burke shows how to get from sugar to atomic weapons by two totally independent paths. The first involves African slaves, Abolitionist societies, Sampson Lloyd II, wire, suspension
- E9: High Times (1994-05-08) — The connection between polyethylene and Big Ben is a few degrees of separation, so let us recount them: polyethylene, radar, soap, artificial dyes, color perception, tapestries, Fa
- E10: Deja Vu (1994-05-22) — James Burke provides evidence that history does repeat itself by examining the likes of black and white movies, conquistadors, Peruvian Incas, small pox, settlements that look like
- E11: New Harmony (1994-05-22) — A dream of utopia is followed from microchips to Singapore, from the transistor to its most important element, germanium, to Ming vases and cobalt fakes (which contribute to the bl
- E12: Hot Pickle (1994-06-05) — Burke starts out in a spice market in Istanbul where you can find hot pickle, recounts the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, follows the trail of pepper, tea, and opiu
- E13: The Big Spin (1994-06-05) — The Big Spin is what California's lottery TV show is called. And lottery being a game of chance, from here Burke takes us through Alexander Fleming's chance discovery of penicillin
- E14: Bright Ideas (1994-06-19) — Gin and tonic was invented to combat malaria in British colonies like Java, which leads us to Geneva, where cleanliness is an obsession. Here, tonic water was sealed with a disposa
- E15: Making Waves (1994-07-03) — A permanent wave in ladies' hair is aided by curlers, and this leads us to explore borax, taking us to Switzerland, Johann Sutter's scam, and Sutter's Mill, and that means the disc
- E16: Routes (1994-07-17) — Jethro Tull, a sick English lawyer, recuperates sipping wine and contributes the hoe to help fix farming problems. Farm production is not going so well in France, either. François
- E17: One Word (1994-07-24) — The one word that changed everything was "filioque", but we must make a trip to Constantinople, visit the Renaissance, meet Aldus Manutius of Venice, explore abbreviations, learn a
- E18: Sign Here (1994-07-31) — Murphy's Law says you need insurance from Lloyd's of London, so pack your bags to study international law and protect yourself from piracy by calculating the probability. You bette
- E19: Better Than the Real Thing (1994-08-07) — This episode starts in the 1890s with bicycles and bloomers and then takes a look at boots, zippers, sewing machines, and infinitesimal difference. Speaking of small, we look at mi
- E20: Flexible Response (1994-08-14) — A whimsical look at the myth of the English longbow, Robin Hood, sheep, the need to drain land with windmills, the effect of compound interest, decimal fractions (wrongly pointing
Connections³
- E1: Feedback (1997-01-01) — Electronic agents on the internet and wartime guns use feedback techniques discovered in the first place by Claude Bernard, whose vivisection experiments kick off animal rights mov
- E2: What's in a Name (1997-01-01) — Remember the cornflakes from last episode? Because corncobs make adhesives to bond carborundum discovered by Edward Goodrich Acheson, otherwise known as silicon carbide, to grindin
- E3: Drop the Apple (1997-01-01) — At the Smithsonian, we learn of electric crystals that help Pierre and Marie Curie discover what they call radium, and then Langevin uses the piezoelectric crystal to develop sonar
- E4: An Invisible Object (1997-01-01) — Black holes in space, seen by the Hubble Telescope, brought into space with hydrazine fuel, which was a byproduct of fungicides for French vines, fuelled by quarantine conventions
- E5: Life is No Picnic (1997-01-01) — Instant coffee gets off the ground in World War II and Jeeps lead to nylons and stocking machines smashed by Luddites, who were defended by Lord Byron, who meets John Galt in Turke
- E6: Elementary Stuff (1997-01-01) — Alfred Russel Wallace, who studied beetles, Oliver Lodge and telegraphy, a radio designed by Reginald Fessenden, which was used by banana growers, studied by Augustin Pyramus de Ca
- E7: A Special Place (1997-01-01) — Professor Sir Alec Jeffries of Leicester University in England develops DNA profiling and schlieren photography used by Theodore von Karman to study aerodynamics and Anthony Fokker
- E8: Fire from the Sky (1997-01-01) — Due to continental drift and Alfred Wegener's passion for mirages, magic images from the sister of King Arthur, whose chivalry supposedly triggers the medieval courtly love answers
- E9: Hit the Water (1997-01-01) — Thanks to napalm, made with palm oil, also used for margarine, stiffened with a process using kieselguhr that comes from plankton living in currents studied by Ballot before observ
- E10: In Touch (1997-01-01) — Starting from an attempt for cheaper fusion power using superconductivity, which was discovered by Onnes, with liquid gas provided by Louis-Paul Cailletet, who carried out experime
Frequently Asked Questions
How many seasons does Connections have? 3 season(s) with 40 episodes.
Who created Connections? James Burke.
Where can I watch Connections? See the Where to Watch section above for current streaming options.
