Precision: The Measure of All Things

Director: Mike Cunliffe
UK, 2013, 3x60', color 

English with Turkish subtitles 

Measurement is a story that’s as old as mankind. It’s a subject that we’ve grappled with since cave dwelling times when we counted on our knuckles, and continues to perplex the greatest minds in modern science. Packed with cutting-edge science, amusing anecdotes from history and jaw-dropping examples from the modern world, this is the story of our journey from painting caves to the exploration of outer space.

With experiments both modern and ancient, the series will explain how we developed the seven international units of measurement for time, length, mass, brightness, current, temperature and moles (the measurement of atoms). And how these seven have shaped the course of history, science and civilization. 

Epsiode 1: Time and Distance

Professor Marcus du Sautoy tells the story of the metre and the second - how an astonishing journey across revolutionary France gave birth to the metre, and how scientists today are continuing to redefine the measurement of time and length, with extraordinary results. 

Episode 2: Mass and Moles

Deep underground in a vault beneath Paris lives the most important lump of metal in the world - Le Grand K. Created in the 19th century, it's the world's master kilogramme, the weight on which every other weight is based. But there is a problem with Le Grand K - it is losing weight. Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores the history of this strange object and the astonishing modern day race to replace it.

Episode 3: Light, Heat and Electricity

From lightning bolts and watt engines to electromagnetic waves and single electrons, Professor Marcus du Sautoy continues his journey into the world of measurement as he reveals how we came to measure and harness the power of heat, light and electricity. It's a journey that has involved the greatest minds in science and, today, is getting down to the very building blocks of atoms. 

Weights And Measures Issue Title Weight And Sea

Weights And Measures Issue Title Weight And Sea

Weights And Measures

Weights And Measures

Paperweights

Paperweights

Modern Scales

Modern Scales

Precision: The Measure of All Things

Precision: The Measure of All Things

Cloud Profiles: Weightless Measures

Cloud Profiles: Weightless Measures

For All the Time, for All the Sad Stones

For All the Time, for All the Sad Stones

Louis Isadore Kahn (1901-1974)

Louis Isadore Kahn (1901-1974)

Louis Isadore Kahn was born in 1901 to a Jewish family in Pärnu, Russia (today Estonia), far from Philadelphia where he spent his whole life, worked, fell in love, and breathed his last. Kahn family emigrated to America when he was five years old. 

Barbara Kruger’s Practice on Power,  Capitalism, Identity, and Gender

Barbara Kruger’s Practice on Power, Capitalism, Identity, and Gender

A closer look at the life and works of the artist Barbara Kruger, who is represented with two striking works in the exhibition And Now The Good News, a selection of works from the Nobel Collection.

Kozbekçi Mustafa Ağa

Kozbekçi Mustafa Ağa

When Karl XII of Sweden was defeated by Tsar Peter the Great of Russia in 1709, he fled to the Ottoman Empire and settled in Bender with his entourage for five years.