Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum, Latin for "that which was to be demonstrated") was the name of a series of BBC popular science documentary films which aired in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1999. Running in a half-hour peak-time slot on the BBC's primary mass-audience channel BBC1, the series had a more populist and general interest agenda than the long-running Horizon series which aired on the more specialist channel BBC2. Horizon could often be difficult for a scientific novice, requiring a modicum of background knowledge beyond the reaches of many viewers, so Q.E.D. was a more approachable way of introducing scientific stories.
Episodes Season Season 20 · 0/13 Season 19 · 0/10 Season 18 · 0/12 Season 17 · 0/11 Season 16 · 0/6 Season 15 · 0/7 Season 14 · 0/10 Season 13 · 0/10 Season 12 · 0/14 Season 11 · 0/14 Season 10 · 0/13 Season 9 · 0/12 Season 8 · 0/15 Season 7 · 0/13 Season 6 · 0/13 Season 5 · 0/8 Season 4 · 0/6 Season 3 · 0/7 Season 2 · 0/7 Season 1 · 0/9 0/13 watched · 1998
S20E01 Breathless 1998-07-19
This week an investigation into a controversial new drug-free treatment for asthma. The Russian professor who devised the theory, called Buteyko, claims many asthma symptoms are caused by hyperventilation, and therapists usingthe method encourage patients to slow down their breathing more
S20E02 Prisoners of the Forgotten Plague 1998-07-29
The first of five new documentaries looks at a mysterious disease, known as sleepy sickness, which left thousands of people motionless and speechless in the 1920s. Now "virus hunter" Professor John Oxford fears there could be another outbreak more
S20E03 Deadly Secrets 1998-08-05
Every year at least 20 women in Britain kill their babies on the day they give birth. The actual figure may be higher because many of these women manage to hide their pregnancies from everyone around them. Here, two women describe what led them to commit neonaticide, and psychiatrists try to explain why mothers do it. more
S20E04 The Quest for the Quagga 1998-08-12
This week's film reports on how scientists in South Africa are trying to resurrect an animal extinct for more than a century-the half-horse, half-zebra quagga - in a project that inspired the film Jurassic Park. more
S20E05 Spontaneous Human Combustion 1998-08-26
The last programme in the current series investigates a number of extraordinary cases of people bursting into flames. Scientists and fire experts try to explain the phenomenon, and there's an experiment aimed at showing how it could happen. more
S20E06 Hope for Helen 1998-09-27
S20E07 Bubble Babies 1998-10-06
The science series returns with the first of five new documentaries. This programme tells the stories of children with severe combined immuno-deficiency, or SCID, a genetic disease that prevents babies from fighting infections. Two years ago, a revolutionary operation proved for the first time that this fatal disease could be cured. more
S20E08 Betsy and the Bongo 1998-10-12
S20E09 Call of the Deep 1998-11-10
Free diving is a form of competitive swimming that involves staying deep underwater for long periods onjust one breath. Although free divers train themselves to overridethe desire to surface, it is possible that their stamina may be due to "dive reflex", the same instinct that enables babies to breath underwater automatically. Tonight's programme follows the British free diving team as they are tested to verify this theory. more
S20E10 Secrets of the Cloud People 1998-11-18
The discovery in the Amazon jungle of a cliff tomb containing 200 mummies has given new credence to legends about a lost civilisation -the Cloud People. The tomb is nearto an ancient jungle city, found and filmed by explorer Gene Savoy, which includes a massive fortress. Savoy, a real-life Indiana Jones, reveals startling evidence that links these mummies to the ancient civilisations of the Middle East. more
S20E11 The Bionic Woman 1998-12-01
Eight years ago Julie Hill was paralysed from the waist down in a car crash, but subsequently she was chosen to be the first patient in the world to receive electronic implants that might help herto walk again. Like a character from a science-fiction film, she has become a "bionic woman". This film follows her remarkable progress as a team of British doctors and scientists re-writes the anatomy text books and pushes back the limits of technology in an attempt to achieve her dream of walking. more
S20E12 Joella's Journey 1998-12-09
S20E13 Saving Trudy 1999-04-12