Let me give you the spiel:

Oxford professor Richard Dawkins presents a series of lectures on life, the universe, and our place in it. With brilliance and clarity, Dawkins unravels an educational gem that will mesmerize young and old alike. Illuminating demonstrations, wildlife, virtual reality, and special guests (including Douglas Adams) all combine to make this collection a timeless classic.

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children were founded by Michael Faraday in 1825, with himself as the inaugural lecturer. The 1991 lecturer was Richard Dawkins whose five one-hour lectures, originally televised by the BBC, are now available free online, courtesy of The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Got that? All five of Dawkins’ 1991 lectures available for download, free of charge – and to keep the Mac jockeys happy they’re in Quicktime format (although if anyone can’t get on with that format, leave a comment and I’ll try and sort out some DivX conversions).

The download page is here – get ’em while they’re hot.

And if anyone has a copy of Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’, then please give me a shout.

UPDATE

As of this morning, the download links aren’t working – I’ll try to confirm with the site but my suspicion is that they may be having bandwidth problems and have taken the downloads offline for the time being. I’ve also enquired as to whether its possible under the terms of the release to mirror the downloads and offered to help if it is.

As soon as I know anything, you’ll know.