I have just acquired the BBC series The Ascent of Man on DVD. I am immersing myself in it, just like I remember I did as a teenager, when it was first aired on Swedish television.

The series is a personal essay by Jacob Bronowski on the intellectual and scientific advances of man. The presentation is in several parts, each covering different areas, such as agriculture, architecture, or mathematics.

This is still one of the best series ever made, and it is impossible to repeat. Of course, it looks very dated, and this is not only because of the generous number of knitted ties sported by Bronowski. Of course, it would be possible to add more spectacular computer graphics, and present the scientific concepts with more advanced animation (and have the title music sound less like coming from an early prototype of an Atari computer).

But just think of having a person read to the camera, illustrate scientific concepts himself by hand in deceptively simple experiments, and do so in a multitude of exotic locations! The time in each program with Bronowski off the screen, is short indeed. And think of the theme. How optimistic to present, not science in itself, but the development of ideas!

Yet, Bronowski enthralls the audience, and among them were many swedish teenagers in the seventies. I wonder if there would be students today who would like to study the series and how it was made.

At the time, there was a discussion whether the medium of a TV-series was really serious enough for presenting a serious matter as science. Today, there would be the same discussion, but the question would be whether science could be entertaining enough to be allowed to take up so much time that could be given to a quiz show or reality drama. Not to mention to ask for money for a series where a person … talks?!?!

Science no longer has an unquestioned standing. I noted in the paper today that 23% of swedes believe astrology is science, and 14% that intelligent design is a science subject. A completely different example: Two books, reviewed recently in The New Yorker (Unstrung, A Critic at Large, Oct 2, 2006) discuss the dominant theory in theoretical physics - string theory - and questions whether it has achieved anything.

The greatest obstacle today would be to present the development of ideas. The world does not allow for such a positive approach, but would rather be critical of the position of science and reason. And certainly the world would not allow such a positive, self-assured, and bold title as ‘The Ascent of Man’.