New: A new 10-part weekly 30 minute magazine programme starts on National Geographic TV in the New Year. It is called What Would Happen If... and begins on Sunday 13 January at 5pm (repeated at 11pm). It is co-preented by Richard Ambrose and Jonny Phillips and deals with a range of fun science topics. It features a regular slot called 'Brains in the Box' in which I, together with other experts Prof Noel Sharkey from Robot Wars and Prof Heinz Wolff, discuss the science behind some fascinating stuff. (To be honest, I did the filming months ago and can't remember what we covered. There're things like ' what would happen if the Earth would suddenly stop spinning').

Filming in 2008: I will be making a three part series for the BBC on science and Islam, in which I chart the scientific discoveries made by the early Islamic scientists in the Middle East and Persia during the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries AD. The series will be transmitted in early 2009.

Summer 2007: I presented a three-part series on BBC4 called ATOM. This is the exciting story of how mankind discovered the atom and unlocked its deepest secrets. It is in three parts:

• Episode 1 is on how the atom was discovered and how we developed the strange theory of quantum physics to explain its behaviour.

• Episode 2: The story of the heart of the atom: the nucleus. How was it first discovered and how we have been able to explain how all the atoms in our bodies were cooked inside a giant star billions of years ago?

Episode 3: the untold story of three of the greatest geniuses of the 20th century: Englishman Paul Dirac (discoverer of antimatter) and Americans Murray Gell-Mann (discoverer of quarks) and brilliant Richard Feynman.

The series is being repeated in the New Year (8,9,10 January 2008) and will then move obḥver to BBC2 at some point in Spring or Summer 2008. This will be accompanied by the release of a DVD box set of the series.

Other television programmes I have been involved with include:

• The South Bank Show: 12 Books that Changed the World (ITV1, 2006) - contributor on the programme on Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica.
• Guest panellist on BBC 4 Mind Games, February 2005.
• Second by Second: the Chernobyl disaster (National Geographic USA).
• Journeys through Space and Time (BBC Knowledge, 2001) - documentary on the nature of black holes.
• The Riddle of Einstein's Brain (Channel 4, National Geographic USA, 2005) - co-presenter (with Mark Lythgoe) of one hour documentary on the story of how the most famous brain in history is still pickled in a jar in a secret location.
• A Life of Time (BBC2, 2000) - programme looking at both the physics and human perceptions of time, focusing on Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity.
• The Science of Dr Who: how the TARDIS Work (BBC2, 1999) - short programme screened as part of BBC2 theme night on Dr Who.
• The Flow of Time (BBC2, 1999) - documentary as part of a theme night on the nature of time. Together with Roger Penrose, discussed ideas behind Einstein's theories of relativity. Subsequently screened in both US and Japan