Hidden Kingdom explores the story of the discovery that all life on Earth is made of cells. It was a shocking revelation that overturned centuries of scientific and religious dogma. However, it began not with a scientist but with a Dutch linen merchant, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.
Adam travels to van Leeuwenhoek's home town of Delft to discover how he revealed a hidden kingdom invisible to the naked eye, teeming with bizarre creatures he called "animalcules". It would be another two centuries before science revealed that these cells were the building blocks of every life form on the planet, from plankton to people.
Adam travels to the major centres of European science to trace the stories of the geniuses who got it wrong and laymen who got it right; of rivalries and secrecy; and of the sudden insights at dinner parties that would become the bedrock of modern biology.
Note: This BBC production not available in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, USA, Canada.
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