Bang Goes the Theory

Production: BBC
Producer: Kim Shillinglaw and Tina Fletcher

Programme run: 12 x 30 mins

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An irreverent and fun magazine-style series looking at cutting edge science, with big stunts, team challenges and glimpses of the technology of the future. A small team of experts undertake hands on experiments relating to everything from the Big Bang theory to biology. We set off an avalanche to discover how an airbag can help winter sports fans to survive a disaster, investigate robot vision and the presenters try to pass a lie-detector test.

The Virtual Revolution

Production: BBC
Producer: Russell Barnes

Programme run: 4 x 60 mins

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The Virtual Revolution is the BBC's statement on two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web. Provocative, dynamic and full of attitude, the series comprises four tightly-argued essays that will lay bare how, for better and for worse, the web is transforming our world - empowering us with extraordinary access to the library of human knowledge while, at the same time, overturning centuries-old assumptions about privacy, identity, ownership and even the nature of truth itself.

Electric Dreams

Production: Wall to Wall/BBC
Producer: Leanne Klein

Programme run: 3 x 60 mins

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This living history series charts the impact of the technological revolution on family life. One modern family and their home will be fast forwarded through the decades of the 70s, 80s and 90s to see first hand how technology has transformed our homes and the way we live in them. How will the family play, talk, relax and shop without Facebook, Sky+, mobile phones and modern computer games to help them?

Jimmy Doherty in Darwin's Garden

Production: BBC
Producer: Andrew Thompson

Programme run: 3 x 60 mins

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Jimmy Doherty, farmer and entomologist, follows Darwin's intellectual journey towards publishing "On the Origin of Species", recreating his ground breaking experiments. Working from Darwin's detailed notes, Jimmy looks at in-breeding in plants and the mechanics of natural selection. But Jimmy also pursues some of Darwin's more unusual experiments, including feeding his urine to insect eating plants, throwing a snake into a monkey enclosure at a zoo, and playing a bassoon to an earthworm.

James May's Big Ideas

Production: BBC
Producer: Phil Dolling

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Technology already helps us do things more efficiently, but how far can it go? Can technology take us into the realms of science fiction, with flying cars, robotic workers who look like humans and limitless energy? Motoring journalist James May meets the scientists and designers trying to turn fantasy into reality. If we ever get the flying car right, could drivers navigate safely through the skies? And how might we react to our humanoid robotic double?

Fossil Detectives

Production: BBC
Producer: Fiona Pitcher

Programme run: 8 x 30 mins

Life began more than a billion years ago and the evidence is buried in the rocks beneath our feet. Stories of scientific breakthroughs are complemented by amateurs' guides to finding fossils. The series looks at the real secret at the bottom of Loch Ness, the best places in Europe to track down a dinosaur, the stolen dinosaur footprints turning up on eBay and the relationship between fossils and fuel. A user's guide to spotting fossils in garden gravel is also included.

The Cosmos

Production: Screenhouse
Producer: Paul Bader

Programme run: 6 x 30 mins

Amazing stories of how we came to understand the Cosmos. Six programmes look at how we discovered the nature of our universe, ranging from a stick stuck in the earth to the Hubble Space Telescope. Each discovery makes possible the next, until humans could land on the moon, weigh the universe and understand how stars are born. (Image ESA, D.Ducros)

Alternative Therapies

Production: BBC
Producer: Emma Walker

Programme run: 3 x 60 mins

Some amazing claims are made for meditation, massage and hypnotherapy. Professor Kathy Sykes travels the world to explore the history, the use and the evidence for alternative therapies. Can the conflicts with modern science be reconciled with the powerful testimonies of satisfied patients? (image iStock.com)

Alternative Medicine

Production: BBC
Producer: Anne Laking

Programme run: 3 x 60 mins

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The use of complimentary therapies from acupuncture to reflexology is growing at a phenomenal rate, but information about non-conventional medicine tends to be confused and controversial. As more and more of us use these therapies, we ask: do they work and, if so, can science help us to explain how?