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Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life

Danny — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:38:51 +0000

David starts his journey in Darwin’s home at Down House in Kent, where Darwin worried and puzzled over the origins of life. David goes back to his roots in Leicestershire, where he hunted for fossils as a child, and where another schoolboy unearthed a significant find in the 1950s. And he revisits Cambridge University, where both he and Darwin studied, and where many years later the DNA double helix was discovered, providing the foundations for genetics.At the end of his journey in the Natural History Museum in London, David concludes that Darwin’s great insight revolutionized the way in which we see the world. We now understand why there are so many different species, and why they are distributed in the way they are. But above all, Darwin has shown us that we are not set apart from the natural world, and do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes, as are all other animals on earth to which, indeed, we are related.... Watch Now

Darwin’s Secret Notebooks

Danny — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:47:15 +0000

Using Darwin’s own diary and field notes as a travel guide, retrace Darwin’s expedition beyond the Galapagos to uncover the forgotten evidence that inspired his revolutionary work. He wasn’t a mathematician. He wasn’t an inventor. He was just a 20-something guy who liked to poke around in the dirt.Yet, Charles Darwin developed a theory of evolution so significant that it forms the bedrock of biology, and so radical it is still controversial in some circles today. In 1859, when he was 50, Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” the work that outlined the theory of natural selection and left every high-schooler hankering for a trip to the Galapagos Islands. He was only 22 when he began the five-year adventure that led him to his legacy.Charles Darwin’s five-year expedition led him to his theory of evolution. Feb. 12, 2009 marked his 200th birthday.... Watch Now

The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestors

Danny — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:53:24 +0000

Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” found in Germany that’s created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins. In this documentary paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution.The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs. “This is the first link to all humans,” Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, said in a statement. Ida represents “the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor.” Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy. The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs. “This specimen looks like a really early fossil monk... Watch Now

Growing Up in the Universe

Danny — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:37:50 +0000

Growing Up in the Universe was a series of lectures given by Richard Dawkins as part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, in which he discussed the evolution of life in the universe. The lectures were first broadcast in 1991, in the form of five one-hour episodes.To start off part one, Dawkins discusses the amazing capabilities of the human body and contrasts these with the limited capabilities of computers and other man-made machines. He uses a small totem pole (which is used in ancestor worship) to illustrate the importance of studying our ancestors to understand how we’ve evolved.Dawkins’ second lecture of the series examines the problem of design. He presents the audience with a number of simple objects, such as rocks and crystals, and notes that these objects have been formed by simple laws of physics and are therefore not designed.Dawkins starts the third lecture coming in with a stick insect on his hand. He describes with how much... Watch Now

Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus

Danny — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:18:32 +0000

Flock of Dodos examines the disagreements that proponents of intelligent design have with the scientific consensus position of evolution. The evolutionarily famous dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is a now-extinct bird that lived on the Island of Mauritius, which is approximately 500 miles east of Madagascar. When Portuguese sailors arrived on the island, the possible combination of over-hunting and introduction of new predators (i.e. pigs, macaques) seems to have led to its extinction by approximately 1700. Due to its lack of fear of humans and inability to fly, the dodo was easy prey, and thus became known for its apparent stupidity. It failed to change with an evolving environment, which ultimately led to the birds’ demise.The film attempts to determine who the real “dodos” are in a constantly evolving world: the scientists who are failing to effectively promote evolution as a scientifically accepted fact, the intelligent design advocates, or the American public who get f... Watch Now

Oliver The Chimp

Danny — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:03:01 +0000

In January 1976 news broke of a phenomenon. Pictures showed an upright bald ape called Oliver, who appeared to be a cross between a human and a chimpanzee; What scientists refer to as a humanzee.Oliver’s photographs shocked the world, and in the media frenzy that followed he became an international celebrity. In Japan his human-like behavior earned him cult status. In New York some journalists described him as the missing link. Others dubbed him Bigfoot. Oliver gradually faded from the spotlight and eventually disappeared.Now 30 years later, he has been found still alive. And with the latest DNA profiling, we can finally solve the mystery of the humanzee.... Watch Now

The Real Neanderthal Man

Danny — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:25:05 +0000

42,000 Years ago, the only humans in Europe made clothes, educated their young, made tools. But they weren't the same as us. Now the very latest technology can reveal exactly how they lived, the dangers they faced and the communities they made in the Neander valley in Germany.We all know the word "Neanderthal" to be an unflattering qualifier for some of our more uncultured and dim-witted fellow humans. But was the real Neanderthal man truly such an intellectual dunce? The Real Neanderthal Man looks at modern scientific findings that reveal quite the opposite.... Watch Now

The Four-Winged Dinosaur

Danny — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:08:40 +0000

In 2002, the discovery of a beautiful and bizarre fossil astonished scientists and reignited the debate over the origin of flight. With four wings and superbly preserved feathers, the 130 million-year-old creature was like nothing paleontologists had ever seen before. In this program, NOVA travels to the Chinese stone quarry where the fossil was discovered (a famed fossil treasure trove) and teams up with the world’s leading figures in paleontology, biomechanics, aerodynamics, animation, and scientific reconstruction to perform an unorthodox experiment: a wind tunnel flight test of a scientific replica of the ancient oddity. Dubbed Microraptor, the crow-sized fossil is one of the smallest dinosaurs ever found and one of the most controversial, challenging conventional theories and assumptions about the evolution of flight. But how did Microraptor use its wings? Did it array its arm- and leg-mounted wings in the style of an early 20th-century biplane to produce high lift at low speed?... Watch Now

Pedigree Dogs Exposed

Danny — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:11:54 +0000

Pedigree dogs are suffering from genetic diseases following years of inbreeding, an investigation has found.A BBC documentary says they are suffering acute problems because looks are emphasised over health when breeding dogs for shows.The programme shows spaniels with brains too big for their skulls and boxers suffering from epilepsy.The Kennel Club says it works tirelessly to improve the health of pedigree dogs.Pedigree animals make up 75% of the seven million dogs in the UK and cost their owners over £10m in vets' fees each week.Poor healthThe programme, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, says dogs suffering from genetic illness are not prevented from competing in dog shows and have gone on to win "best in breed", despite their poor health.It says physical traits required by the Kennel Club's breed standards, such as short faces, wrinkling, screw-tails and dwarfism, have inherent health problems.Other problems occur... Watch Now

Evolution of Life On Other Planets: Even the Gods Have Gods

Danny — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:40:27 +0000

A comprehensive review of scientific findings, published in prestigious scientific journals, is presented to explain how life from other planets evolved on Earth. These first Earthlings (archae, bacteria, and cyanobacteria) contained the genes and the genetic information for altering the environment, the “evolution” of multicellular eukaryotes, and the metamorphosis of all subsequent species.

These included exons, introns, transposable elements, informational and operational genes, RNA, ribozomes, mitochondria, and all the core genetic machinery for translating, expressing, and repeatedly duplicating genes and the entire genome. Prokaryotic genes were initially combined to fashion the first eukaryotes and/or were donated and transferred to unicellular then multicellular eukaryotes and then subsequently expressed in response to biologically engineered environmental influences, often in busts of explosive evolutionary change, as typified by the Cambrian Explosion.... Watch Now