Ep4: The Ultraviolet Garden - Growing Up in the Universe - Richard Dawkins

richarddawkins.net/growingupin...
Oxford professor Richard Dawkins presents a series of lectures on life, the universe, and our place in it. With brilliance and clarity, Dawkins unravels an educational gem that will mesmerize young and old alike. Illuminating demonstrations, wildlife, virtual reality, and special guests (including Douglas Adams) all combine to make this collection a timeless classic.
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children were founded by Michael Faraday in 1825, with himself as the inaugural lecturer. The 1991 lecturer was Richard Dawkins whose five one-hour lectures, originally televised by the BBC, are now available free online, courtesy of The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The entire 5-hour program is also available on a 2-DVD set through our online store. richarddawkins.net/store/index...
The DVD includes subtitles in English, Spanish, French and Polish.
Read the transcript:
richarddawkins.net/GUITUtransc...
If you enjoy these free videos, please consider purchasing the DVD and/or making a donation to The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to help us continue our work. Donate here: richarddawkinsfoundation.org/d...
Originally broadcast as The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children, 1991.

[@AdityaDhulipalaTrojan]

Douglas Adams volunteers for Richard Dawkins to read HHGTTG!.. They rehearsed very well.. XD... Best Dawkins video!!

[@LukeSumIpsePatremTe]

Dawkins wrote in one of his books, that Douglas Adams once hold a party, in which table seatings were desided beforehand. There were a twist though. Guests didn't know their seats or names of those next to them. Instead there were some hints and by talking to each other they could finally solve whom they were sitting next to. Pretty good way to start a party, isn't it? Also it hinted that Dawkins and Adams knew each other outside this small cameo here.

[@Colin12475]

I wish I had Dawkins as a bio or science teacher.

[@SteveBakerIsHere]

@Henry Dalcke I think you have that, very precisely, backwards.

[@B01]

I wish this video had 100x the views

[@Homo_sAPEien]

🤣Who doesn’t?

[@Colin12475]

@@Homo_sAPEien Creationists.

[@moonlover2022]

Be grateful you are seeing his lectures

[@UV0023]

Just done watching the 5th episode, these lectures were way ahead of their time, everybody should know about shows like this I found out about it recently at the age of 28, it would've been great If I had the chance to watch it at an early age. It's a crime not to air this show in every channel of every country. Man, Richard Dawkins is a living encyclopedia!

[@galaxyspirals9595]

UV0023 Yea it's disgusting. I've heard the same bible stories millions of times as a child and never knew about this awesomeness.

[@galaxyspirals9595]

Chris S. why do you have my avatar lmao

[@galaxyspirals9595]

Chris S. haha the coincidence!

[@unfortunatebeam]

+UV0023 You are watching it at an early age, you're 28 :)

[@thecrazylovelyboy]

Chris S. you should tell your teacher that he's dumb as shit and then report him. Morons should not be allowed to teach children.

[@donnyraja]

We in India are converting this lectures in Marathi language. It was very kind of Sir Dawkins to permit us to do so.

[@brainimp]

this was only 22 years ago and look how primitive the technology looks compared to today, just imagine what it will be like in another 22 years from now

[@ViMi1]

"There was a thing called KZbin" :) ... and emoticons.

[@unfortunatebeam]

+Craig Brainimpact meh, they already had much of what we have now actually : desktop computers, laptops, remote controlled robots, the first generation of handheld computers, palm pilots, I think were on their way in '91/'92, which was pretty much the first smart phone type of thing. So it's not really THAT much more primitive, everything just keeps getting smaller while allowing for more and more information to be stored. They even knew about nanotechnology at this time.

[@thamasteroneill]

It wouldn't be a "dead" end. It would be a physical wall limiting the speed and number of computations etc but that wouldn't be a "dead" end. Already we can do incredible things with computers and I don't see our ingenuity ending as soon as we hit some computational limit. If anything as we approach our limits we usually figure out ways to do more with what we have. Of course getting quantum computers would be great but even if that turns out to not be feasible we already have some quite impressive technology.

[@pyrotechnick420]

Actually I would argue the opposite point. They had almost everything we have now, they even used a VR headset in this series. The only major difference between then and now is that we have smartphones and the commercialization of the internet of course. They had the internet back then, but it hadn't been commercialized yet. EDIT: Just noticed that this segment also has a industrial robot arm a la Tony Stark, and also features an autonomous robot bug... EDIT 2: FUCK it turns out that the robug wasn't autonomous after all. Buuut Richard also just talked about nanotechnology so suuuuck it lol

[@unematrix]

just look at how much it has improved since you made this comment :)

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

OMG, OMG, OMG - two of my biggest heroes, Richard Dawkins and Douglas Noel Adams...!

[@phillipblanc4846]

i cant express how ridiculous i felt when i realizes, upon repeat viewing, that that was actually Douglas Adams(#^_^#)

[@gbiota1]

i sure am glad that there are so many people out there waiting to correct unstated minuscule inaccuracies. on another note, this guy did an amazing job planning out this lecture. posting videos like this is a tremendous community service, and i am very grateful to those who do, thank you very much.

[@-Blackberry]

I always love dipping into these lectures every so often, they were so wholesome and not patronising to the children there when tackling these heavy subjects.

[@RPFS2008]

I wish I had the thirst for knowledge that I have now when I was at school.

[@KjellWilliams]

I thoroughly enjoy this series of lectures! This is awesome.

[@T-NO]

OMFSM Douglas Adams.... tears in my eyes

[@isaiahbaker3597]

Ramen

[@Synathidy]

@@isaiahbaker3597 Yeah, I'm with you - ramen. Agreed.

[@amiraboodi2075]

An interesting and outstanding lecture. I really love how Dr. Richard Dawkins explains different topics with patience and by using different animals.

[@evolit2011]

14:12 the label of the honey jar featured biomorphs! My first Easter Egg ever!

[@frostyknickers]

This is why I love the scientific world. Dawkins could easily not put this on the web and force you to pay for it or watch it in sub-standard quality but no, he understands that it's both too beautiful and important not to share. What a fucking sick guy, mad props.

[@dda001]

My biggest wish is to one day meet in person and shake hands with Prof Dawkins. I've learned so much from his teachings that I just wish to just say thanks from the bottom of my heart 🙏

[@pauldirc..]

Which country do you live in He is currently giving lectures in berlin Germany

[@RogueSilverEgo]

These lectures are the best, you can just see the overflowing love and passion Dawkins has for science with the way he so gently handles everything. What is brilliant is the number of kids genuinely interested, wish I was there. Mr Dawkins COME TO AUSTRALIA PLEASE!! :D

[@BartBVanBockstaele]

I occasionally rewatch this series. A True Masterpiece if there ever was one.

[@Neofarpoint]

Thank you very much for the subtitles.

[@phlogios]

Our new generation should do its best to continue the work Prof. Dawkins and his colleagues have accomplished for mankind. There won't ever be another Darwin or Dawkins, but what they discovered and told us has been recorded in history and will live on in humanity's memory. They will never be forgotten - but I don't think that's the point. They have spent their whole lives for the benefit of the human race and that's a cause worth dying for. The meaning of life is to climb Mount Improbable.

[@euclideanplane]

I love this so much richard.... Thank you so much for these days where you made these, they mean so so much to me, It makes me nearly cry. Living in this 2018 world is so distracting from these truths (at least in my life) and you present them in the bestest way I could ever imagine. Thank you... thank you thank you... My mind gets so occupied with concepts of a.i. and other really troubling things... coming back to these roots (I watched these lectures and other videos, I think I've seen nearly every good television recording of any scientific thing period created before 2012..) that even got me to these concepts of a.i. these days is so nostalgic, I remember times when I was genuinely happy about discovering and uncovering knowledge, opposed to the bulk of what I feel these days which is fear..

[@euclideanplane]

I think I saw these when I was 22 or 23, I'm 28 now. please don't reply to this if you see this haha, I couldn't handle that embarrassment. Thank you for trying so hard in the world, I wish everyone would watch these, these are my favorite of your crafted works.

[@euclideanplane]

A.I. is Godoid. I used to have a website called Artificial Intelligence is god.com maybe I'll make a new one now that I'm remembering your "oid" terminology. Godoid.com. lol.

[@Kissmikerotch]

Have you survived through the pandemic?

[@MsJavaWolf]

Dawkins said in an interview, that preparing these lectures took almost a year. All those computer programs, calling universities and companies for the props like the robot, or the microscopes etc. Makes me appreciate these lectures even more.

[@mosab643]

30:50 Wow, that was some great looking CGI for 1991.

[@Synathidy]

I had to take a break and recover from my mind being blown.

[@mosab643]

@@Synathidy I wonder how much of it was hand animation vs physics simulation.

[@drdassler]

What a lucky audience. RIP Douglas. 🕊

[@localforearm1627]

that intro was pretty rad.

[@localforearm1627]

!! VIRUS ALERT !!

[@ronhoek69]

Watched this in the nineties.

[@ambarnag]

This whole lecture series is a great reference for comparing technology in 1991 against the same technology today!

[@PibrochPonder]

And the make up of the population. This is when London was full of English people.

[@lostn65]

These lectures were awesome. I was robbed of an education in evolution in high school because I attended a Catholic school. I consider being put in a Catholic school against my will tantamount to child abuse, because I didn't get the proper education public school students got. I found the theory of evolution very fascinating, especially when articulated by someone as eloquent as Prof Dawkins. It would have changed my life, had this guy taught me evolution in 9th grade.

[@howtodoit4204]

And how in the world does evolution explain those hammer and bucket orchid? Lmao you are drunk

[@user-rq7hv6lf8c]

​@@howtodoit4204 explains it 100%. It would be good if you were drunk, but you have proven to be sober & stupid.

[@joecook5689]

All learning is best done one on one, when the student is ready.

[@z4k4z]

So good to see Douglas Adams and on top form. A genius. Such a loss.

[@My2Cents1]

Rest In Peace, Douglas Adams.

[@louisehaley5105]

I really wish the Monty Python Team had made a movie of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" back in the '80s. Imagine John Cleese as Zaphod, Michael Palin as Arthur Dent etc directed by Terry Gilliam with his zany cut-out animation instead of today's slick CGI effects. I also loved the 1981 BBC tv series (better than 2005 movie).

[@philipdalton1000s]

I've always thought HHGTTG was typical Monty Python style humour.

[@kangre63]

Fantastic! Thank you Professor Dawkins.

[@supahsekzy]

51:10 "Thank you very much.... macaw." lol

[@137bojan]

˝Thank you very much, Bryson, and the bat!˝ Brilliant!!

[@henryporter101]

I hope Dawkins is on this planet for at least another twenty years.I wonder how quaint our most advanced technology will seem to that young generation.

[@billscannell93]

These lectures are wonderful. If I had seen only this series as a kid, I would have learned about science than I did from years of classes.

[@oreolvrsshane1987]

i know hes very well mannered as well especially with the younger audience members unlike many creationists who try to instill fer with dissenters and followers alike

[@VirtuallyKatie]

He's very handsome in this video!!!

[@VirtuallyKatie]

@M J Wow!

[@bcortens]

Such a magnificent series :D I am definitely ordering this as soon as I can :)

[@mek0411]

27:59 "We are machines built by DNA whose purpose is to make more copies of the same DNA" It's mind blowing that it's that simple! Also incredibly humbling...

[@simeon1234]

Dawkins is 12 years older than Douglas Adams but it looks quite opposite!

[@Ryan_2112]

who is douglas adams?

[@johnharvey5412]

+Ryan Sprenkels Douglas Adams is a famous and widely-beloved author. He was the guy reading the book about the cow at the restaurant, which he wrote.

[@Ryan_2112]

+John Harvey oh okay thanks

[@BarbikaPahor]

that pot makes of you...

[@LukeSchoen]

Incredible !

[@MrAntiKnowledge]

Just noticed: If you give a girl some flowers you are giving her a bouquet of sexorgans.

[@JohnFleshman]

Yes! He got Douglas Adams to read his own piece from one of my favorite authors!!!

[@jessiwilkins9400]

Ten million clover blossoms for one jar of honey? Wow. …Now I feel like a jerk for enjoying honey. :(

[@martinplasse174]

Go Vegan!

[@unfortunatebeam]

+Jessi Wilkins If anything you're a jerk for making that comment :)

[@andersbelacqua7042]

Oh there are plenty of alternatives to honey. Try Agava Sirup, or Rice Sirup :))

[@BarbikaPahor]

its wrong. with 50 000 bees in hive and far from all of them actually going out for honey while in peak days collecting 3 kilos of honey... no not 10 000 000 flowers. not even close.

[@JR-ee4xf]

@@BarbikaPahor number of bees doesn't matter. It takes bees visiting about 2 million flowers to make a pound of honey. I wonder how much the jar mentioned in the video weighs.

[@noamaster3898]

Around the time Dawkins was giving these lectures, my church was having "Dr." Kent Hovind come lecture.

[@tonywooten596]

was it hilarious ?

[@noamaster3898]

@@tonywooten596 I was maybe 8, so he hooked me and most kids with dinosaurs. (For the kids, the most exciting bit of the lecture was hearing that there might still be some brontosaurus still living in remote areas...LOL...but the main part for the kids was being invited on stage afterward to buy trinkets, dino figures, and Creationist-Dinosaur books. A frenzy of kids grabbing items, begging their parents, and MR. Hovind taking handfuls of cash from kids.) The presentation was largely the shtick he's still doing. He preached to the choir 90s about how "stupid!" evolution is, talked about humans coexisting with dinosaurs, and where dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible...did the "sixth grade was the best three years of my life" bit. He also referred to National Geographic as "National Pornographic." And I swear this is true--in his rambling presentation, there was a brief aside about how federal income tax was a scam and that he'd gotten it on good authority that you don't have to pay the IRS. On the way home, I remember my Dad saying something like, "I don't think he's right about the IRS. They'll get you if you don't pay."

[@PBeringer]

The weirdest (and quite amusing) irony is that I was dragged to mass by relatives as a kid and the priest at that parish was a total Dawkins doppelgänger ... particularly the voice; tone, intonation and even phrasing. It kinda trips me out. Especially the, "it's there, because it's there, because it's there, because it's there" bit - this priest would always repeat shit that EXACT way. Haha. Also, no matter how many times I've watched this, the computer virus bit always makes me go red ... And if you envy the kids in attendance for these lectures, watch the Carl Sagan RI Christmas Lectures from 1977! "Little twerps ... " ;)

[@vyvlad]

Dawkins has done for biology what Sagan did for astronomy and astrophysics.

[@RobertaPeck]

It allows my mind to marvel.

[@InYourFaceNewYorker]

These lectures are wonderful and a great way to get kids interested in and to understand science. Wish I would have seen them as a kid.

[@user-rq7hv6lf8c]

These lectures are wonderful and a great way to get everyone, including kids, interested in to try to understand the world. Wish I would have seen them as a kid. I watched 'Querschnitte' by Hoimar v. Dithfurt & Volker Arzt.

[@giasintakart]

Dawkins is as brilliant in his thinking as he is in his methods.

[@wilfredmay5231]

Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science . Professor Dawkins doing what he does so very well.

[@biggayal4149]

fml Richard Dawkins is the freaking man! if I could have a personal knight, I'd want it to be him lol

[@unfortunatebeam]

+joseph colebaugh what's a "knight"?

[@biggayal4149]

unfortunatebeam watch armoured skeptic, he is supposedly a knight lol armour wearing, horse riding, sword wielding... a knight, along the lines of king Arthur...

[@unfortunatebeam]

joseph colebaugh sounds like a kook to me...

[@biggayal4149]

unfortunatebeam depends on the knight! lol are you American?

[@unfortunatebeam]

joseph colebaugh um...no, I"m 21st centurian.

[@Untemperedsteel]

He has reason and facts on his side, so he is relaxed and well mannered. Creationists on the other hand feel under attack, because they have to defend a web of lies and fantasy, I guess that makes them grumby.

[@mosab643]

30:50 How was the audience not awed by that CGI presentation? I would have in 1991.

[@differous01]

28:40 "...somehow, without violating the laws of physics and chemistry, a molecule arose which just happened to have the property of self copying." A small crystal will grow into a large crystal in an environment where its own molecules are abundant; CaSO4·2 H2O crystals fill the 'Cave of the Crystals', H20 crystals cover both of the earth's polar regions, and some Pre-Cambrian life forms, like Charnia, have similar fractal properties.

[@EdwardHowton]

Reminds me of one of my favorite songs. It's hard to get the rhythm right in text, but it's a simple and common one. _Timmy was a chemist but now Timmy is no more,_ _For what he thought was H2O was H2SO4!_

[@urmeniamu]

@@EdwardHowton 😂😂😂

[@joecook5689]

From America, no wonder oxford teachers are the best in the world.

[@KanonHara]

omg i cant believe douglas adams was actually there, truly a once in a life time concidence. i can see why they didnt make a big deal about it considering he devalued coincidencces in a previous episode.

[@redlunch]

gotta love the dramatic music at the credits *furious conductor hands*

[@Scoobz187]

Now, some 30ísh years later, GB recognizes animals to have feelings too. Isn't it quite remarkable that this happened? I feel it is even more so after reminiscing about the first 10min of this lecture.

[@peteconrad2077]

Nothing he said suggested it should be otherwise.

[@grperez]

17:01 I'm glad Stephen Hawking showed up to warn us of the virus.

[@readingchamps]

Yep people are slowly waking up

[@yolo22]

that little bat is so adorable!!

[@DSAhmed]

We all know that if a flower would mate with itself, it would go blind.

[@hunarahmad]

thank you very much indeed!

[@dan6506]

Beautiful Thanks 👍🏻 Dan🇮🇹

[@Grapegum]

brilliant as usual

[@gat3010]

Yah

[@alikkk824]

Douglas was the best auritor I've seen ever

[@MsJavaWolf]

This is a great series. I can only imagine how it would have felt like to see it as a child during the holiday season, with a nice hot chocolate, super comfy.

[@Rubystars1000]

That's really fascinating I think this lecture is very good scientific information :)

[@JohnFleshman]

Damn straight! Well said!

[@MegF142857]

at 5:29 sitting to right of Douglas Adams: Is that his sister? Looks so much like him. Loved seeing Douglas Adams speak!! These are such a set of great videos!!

[@DeconvertedMan]

Wow getting Douglas Adam's to read his own book, that is l33t skills right there!!

[@TheVarsh86]

Very well said mate :)

[@MrKevMan]

HAHAHAHAH 30:20 The Minds Eye. I bought that video from Radio Shack in 1992!!!! Ahhh, memories.

[@DSAhmed]

I love the "Meet the Meat" part of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

[@basstian]

Douglas Adams FTW!

[@tttc]

Haha, I'm glad somebody got the reference!

[@TheVarsh86]

17:14 90s video game nostalgia!

[@kaiserwilhelmii6440]

What is the computer program where you get to see how many cells are in you by your weight?

[@beatus72]

Although this is by now a bit old it is still a brilliant an very informative lecture series. I'd really whish it would be translated and published in as many other countries as possible. Dawkins was an still is just extremely good in explaining even complicated facts in a way even understandable for Children. Please, BBC or whoever published this, would you please do it in foreign languages as well? You'd really do evereyone a favour.

[@JayashriV]

The "virus alert" part was so amazingly lame... yet I laughed all the same :-D

[@gusgrissomismyhero]

WHOA!!! a a very YOUNG-looking dawkins

[@AtheistBrit]

I wish I could hire Dawkins as a personal tutor for my future kids!

[@tomaszwida]

anyone know title of intro music?

[@jamesoverholt878]

There needs to be a supercut of animals crawling on Bryce.

[@nthomas87]

Now, I want to read A Hitchhiker's Universe!

[@knarfx4732]

1991: If nanotechnology ever works ? 2020: It works. ⚛️

[@kwiz8848]

This is wayyy before its time

[@wizkidme]

ah Douglas Adam's your so perfect

[@heroic33]

all hail the Science! all hail the Science!

[@mikerodeman]

Holy shit, I just googled Douglas Adams and that's the actual Douglas Adams!!!!!! :D

[@jamesoverholt878]

The Boston Dynamics robots make more sense now. They were designed to squish Robug2.

[@shahinanikhat1632]

That macau was so cute

[@randomdude56]

That's the same way I feel about Dawkins and other fantastic scientists.

[@ulus2109]

anyone know the name of the song?

[@JayVexVideo]

Those are some pretty sweet computer graphics for 1991.

[@dookiecheez]

@WABusinessClub Ah! Thank you!

[@crosbying]

Haha, a kid with glasses thought Dawkins was pointing at him when Douglas went down to the stage :D

[@ja1doyle]

As I watch this series, I cannot help but to think about how far my home country (US) is behind. This was 1991, and we now live in 2011. I imagine, that to get enough children to attend an event like this, they would have to be pried away from their parents with a shovel, for Dawkins' so beautifully refutes christianity and creationism. And no, by the way, the word did not deserve capitalization.

[@TurtleMC1993]

I'm from the UK born in 1993 and we barely touched on evolution in school. Spent an hour a day on maths though? I wasn't at a Catholic school but in our regular "state" schools we still sang hymns and preyed in "elementary". Our school system is extremely flawed as well as yours so don't feel like your countries behind its all part of our species evolving. We could definitely do with a few more richard dawkins around though to spread the knowledge!

[@ovandocarter]

the more and more i think and learn about biology the more and mroe i liek it