Secrets of Size - Going Small

This deep dive journeys inward into the hidden universe of the very small, following Jim Al-Khalili’s exploration from the first microscopes of Robert Hooke to today’s ability to image individual atoms. Along the way, it reveals how physics changes at tiny scales, where insects “swim” through air, cells depend on surface-area geometry to survive, viruses hijack living machinery, carbon nanotubes create materials so black they seem to erase shape, and atomic-force microscopes can feel the surface of bacteria. The episode also traces the breakthroughs that let scientists push beyond visible light, from electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography to Dorothy Hodgkin’s penicillin work, aberration-corrected electron microscopes, and the discovery of graphene. It is a story of shrinking scale, strange forces, medical revolutions, and the astonishing fact that we can now look directly at the atomic building blocks of everything around us.