AllMovie

Host James Burke continues to explore those events and inventions that seem completely unrelated, but prove to be connected in ways that will surprise and amuse the viewer. In Connections 3: Drop the Apple, he combines this blend of art, history, and science in a discussion of James Smithson, the man for whom the Smithsonian Institution is named. Smithson discovered calamine lotion, known to millions as a soothing treatment for poison ivy and sunburn, which has an unusual attribute. Burke explaines how this feature led to Einstein's theory of relativity, which was a critical factor in the making of the atom bomb.