James May's Things You Need To Know Episode Rating Graph

Do you really know what is happening inside your head? James May does and it turns out there is a lot more than you would imagine. With the aid of some mind-boggling animation and motion graphics, he cranks open your cranium to get the answers from 100 billion whizzing neurons on questions like why men don't ask for directions, why your memory is so bad and what love has in common with class A drugs. Packed full of brain-bending science that is sure to blow your mind - you will never think of your grey matter in the same way again!

How have smart guys with spanners managed to change the world? James May finds out by asking things like: What did steam ever do for us? What is the smartest machine? And … When can I move to Mars? Through a weird and wonderful world of animation and motion graphics James will reveal all the answers and along the way find out who has been building skyscrapers for millions of years, what a football has to do with nanotechnology and how a 180mph chicken gun and foul tasting tea help keep you safe on a plane. James uncovers fascinating facts, super science and a wealth of downright wackiness, giving you the real ‘nuts & bolts’ account of how things really work, from the wheel to the Saturn V rocket.

You might relish cabbage about as much as a two month bout of chickenpox, but would you consider it as a leafy long lost relative? James May does, thanks to the genius of a man who changed the world, Charles Darwin. But exactly how does Darwin's famous theory of natural selection explain why we are all mutants and what war is actually good for? James treks off into the wilderness with the natural advantage of fantastic motion graphics and vivid animation, to show us just how.

Do you ever stop to contemplate the wonder of your body? Well, neither had James May - until he realised that his body was by far the most impressive vehicle he was ever going to own. James asks the big questions: how did I get my granny's chin? Why do I catch colds? Why am I hung over? What will we look like a thousand years from now? To find the answers, he plunges into the exciting and sometimes downright bizarre world of motion graphics. The answers are packed with facts that will surprise, amaze and entertain, prompting people to look at their bodies in a new light.

Have you ever wondered if certain chemicals can make you irresistible to the opposite sex? Well James May certainly has, and with a little help from his motion graphic friends, he’ll distill the sensuous secrets and explain how our world is really just one big laboratory. Along the way he’ll reveal that what you flush down your toilet could actually be making you money, how the booze in your bottle could power a jet and why the elements in the periodic table are just like us – they don’t all get along! Join James as he discovers what sorcerers and scientists have wondered for centuries, whether we can turn lead into gold - and if you’re lucky, he just might share chemistry’s secret to eternal life.

Do you ever look up at the sky and wonder why it's blue? Or what a cloud is? Or how you can avoid being hit by lightning? In this programme James May asks the big questions about the weather. To find the answers he is swept up in a storm of exciting, entertaining and sometimes downright bizarre motion graphics. The answers he comes out with are packed with facts that will surprise, amaze and entertain.