Tour The Universe In Awesome 60 Second Adventures

First, it was mind. Then, it was money. Now, The Open University (OU) turns its attention to the stars in the latest series of its popular 60 Second Adventures videos.

60 Second Adventures in Astronomy, narrated by comedian David Mitchell, explains the wonders of the Universe in bite size chunks; brought to life with the series’ trademark fluid animation and rapier wit.

Reader in Cosmology Dr Stephen Serjeant said: “We’ve found we can get across genuinely deep scientific concepts in only a minute and still have room for a few jokes. The origin and fate of the Universe, time dilation in relativity, how to make black holes; nothing was too tricky. It’s been a delight to work with the production team – the wit of their script writing and animations has been wonderful.”

Millions of viewers have already tuned-in to the 60 Second Adventures series, which covers topics such as philosophy, English language, economics, and religion.

The minute-long videos are available through YouTube, iTunesU, and the OU’s free online learning platform OpenLearn. The production was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and produced by Angel Eye Media.

The animation topics were developed by a team from The Open University’s Science Faculty: Drs Janet Sumner, Stephen Serjeant, Andrew Norton and David Rothery.