About 10 days ago, we reported that the BBC would be broadcasting a one-hour presentation on ceramic and glass science, but the broadcast would only be available to UK residents. The show, “Ceramics — How they work,” is the third part of a series that has covered plastics and metals.

The good news is that the BBC show has now been posted on YouTube. As we mentioned before, the program is narrated by Mark Miodownik, a professor specializing in materials science and engineering at University College London.

The BBC website offers this description of the ceramics program:

Miodownik’s three-part series on the materials that shaped the modern world ends with what you might think is a mundane subject. But in his hands, the stories  of how an 18th-century alchemist redeemed himself by cracking the secret Chinese recipe for porcelain, or how glass gradually became tougher and clearer, are vibrant.  Miodownik then applies his nicely judged mix of practical experiments, awestruck giggles and molecular animations to the present and the scintillating future: fibre-optics, super-conductors and modern architecture.

Mark Miodownik charts how mankind learned to use naturally occurring substances to create pottery, glass and concrete, and examines the ways these materials changed the world. He scientifically analyses the properties of ceramic materials, explaining why glass can be completely transparent and why concrete continues to harden for hundreds of years, and reveals the exciting and surprising roles that ceramics could play in the future.


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