# The 20 Best Science Documentaries of All Time

> From cosmic voyages and ocean deeps to melting glaciers and the hunt for the Higgs boson, these films turned hard science into unforgettable spectacle. Which one blew your mind? Cast your vote!

*By YPB Team · Published July 3, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-20-best-science-documentaries-of-all-time*

---

## Current results (3 votes)

1. **Cosmos: A Personal Voyage** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Carl Sagan's landmark 1980 PBS series exploring the universe and humanity's place within it.
2. **Planet Earth** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 832/1000)
   BBC's 2006 David Attenborough series that redefined nature filmmaking with high-definition footage of Earth's wildest places.
3. **My Octopus Teacher** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 832/1000)
   The 2020 Academy Award winner about a filmmaker's year-long bond with a wild octopus.
4. **Chasing Coral** — 0% (0 votes · score 680/1000)
   The 2017 Netflix documentary capturing the alarming disappearance of the world's coral reefs.
5. **The Blue Planet** — 0% (0 votes · score 611/1000)
   BBC's 2001 landmark exploration of the world's oceans narrated by David Attenborough.
6. **Chasing Ice** — 0% (0 votes · score 611/1000)
   The 2012 film following photographer James Balog as he documents rapidly melting glaciers.
7. **A Brief History of Time** — 0% (0 votes · score 529/1000)
   Errol Morris's 1991 documentary on the life and cosmology of Stephen Hawking.
8. **Particle Fever** — 0% (0 votes · score 529/1000)
   The 2013 film chronicling the Large Hadron Collider's search for the Higgs boson.
9. **Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey** — 0% (0 votes · score 529/1000)
   Neil deGrasse Tyson's 2014 reboot of Sagan's series, blending astrophysics with sweeping visuals.
10. **Life** — 0% (0 votes · score 529/1000)
   The 2009 BBC series documenting the extraordinary survival strategies of living things across the planet.
11. **The Elegant Universe** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   The 2003 NOVA series in which physicist Brian Greene explains string theory for a general audience.
12. **Blue Planet II** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   The 2017 follow-up praised as one of the greatest nature series the BBC has ever produced.
13. **Our Planet** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   The 2019 Netflix series pairing Attenborough's narration with an urgent conservation message.
14. **Planet Earth II** — 0% (0 votes · score 317/1000)
   The 2016 sequel that pushed camera technology further to capture animal behavior in stunning intimacy.
15. **An Inconvenient Truth** — 0% (0 votes · score 317/1000)
   Al Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning film that brought climate change to a mass audience.
16. **March of the Penguins** — 0% (0 votes · score 317/1000)
   The 2005 Oscar-winning documentary following emperor penguins' grueling Antarctic breeding journey.
17. **Apollo 11** — 0% (0 votes · score 317/1000)
   The 2019 documentary built entirely from restored archival footage of the first Moon landing.
18. **Racing Extinction** — 0% (0 votes · score 176/1000)
   The 2015 documentary exposing the human-driven mass extinction of species.
19. **Fantastic Fungi** — 0% (0 votes · score 176/1000)
   The 2019 time-lapse exploration of the hidden world of mushrooms and mycelial networks.
20. **The Farthest** — 0% (0 votes · score 176/1000)
   The 2017 documentary telling the story of NASA's Voyager interstellar spacecraft.

Tags: nature, science, documentary, space