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  • Snakes in a Cave – Nate Dappen & Neil Losin (2014)

    Snakes in a Cave – Nate Dappen & Neil Losin (2014)

    As the world is shaking with the news of a new corona virus outbreak in China, researchers have quickly identified the potential source of 2019-nCoV based on the spike forming glycoprotein structure. Just like the hugely informative movie Contagion (2011) depicting a realistic scenario this new virus was a bizarre sounding recombinant. The corona virus SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be a recombinant of a bat and a snake virus. At first, you may naturally ask how could this weird merger have […]

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  • The Queen of Trees – PBS (2006)

    The Queen of Trees – PBS (2006)

    Queen of Trees is now viewable on the official YouTube Channel of Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble. Veteran wildlife filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble once again put out a marvelous work by compiling observations on a community centered around a sycamore fig tree. The success of the documentary comes from their long-term observations in a particular filming spot in Kenya where they camped on location for more than two years. A thorough understanding of the landscape with it’s inhabitants […]

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  • When Plants Fight Back – bioGraphic (2017)

    When Plants Fight Back – bioGraphic (2017)

    Even Aristotle got it wrong. He thought plant roots convert soil into wood and grow that way. Plants resemble bizarre upside down animals. Their superior mouth parts (roots) are located in an inferior position. According to Aristotle, plants are ‘lower’ level living things. They are the first basic steps in procession of life from the inanimate to the animate (animals). Plants don’t move and are without ‘sensory soul’ but still have ‘souls’. Plants do not have any excrement, do not […]

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  • Bluefish – Prince of The Bosphorus

    Bluefish – Prince of The Bosphorus

    You can now watch the documentary with English subtitles by entering the following code “yavrubalıkyemeyizbiz”. LÜFER (Bluefish) is a glitter in people’s eyes, big time money for the small & big fisherman. When the seasonal migration starts lüfer fishing becomes an addictive daily routine for the retired, unemployed and off time employer/hobbyists across Bosporus. If you have a chance to travel around Istanbul’s coastline on a day in October, you can count close to ten thousand active fishing rods, day […]

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  • Whack! Jab! Crack! It’s a Blackback Land Crab Smackdown – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2019)

    Whack! Jab! Crack! It’s a Blackback Land Crab Smackdown – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2019)

    DEEP LOOK is an award-winning PBS program produced by KQED. Here’s another cool story from season 5 Episode 13. Shred a sponge into thousands of pieces but the cells can still rearrange and organize themselves in a surprisingly rapid manner. Here we are shown a snapshot of another example of limb regeneration from the crustacean blackback land crab (Gecarcinus ruricola) native to the Caribbean. Human tissue and organ regeneration is a curious goal for medicine. However in order to achieve […]

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  • During Dive 07 of the Windows to the Deep 2019 expedition, this grouper was observed capturing and eating a shark in the foreground of the billfish.

    A Shark Swallowed Whole by a Wreckfish | Okeanos Explorer/NOAA (2019)

    The remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer (D2) and the telepresence capabilities of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, brought a quite rare biological occurrence for Humans to observe. During the Dive 07 of the Windows to the Deep 2019 expedition viewers watching live have witnessed this fascinating predation in action taking place in the deep ocean. D2 was following a straight-line on a small topographic rise originally thought to be a shipwreck at about 450 meters (1,476 feet) of depth. As D2 […]

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  • Wallace in Borneo – Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero – BBC (2013)

    Wallace in Borneo – Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero – BBC (2013)

    The theory of evolution was co-discovered independently by two biologists that lived within the same time period. Darwin and Wallace were well known in their time but Wallace’s name gradually has been overshadowed by Darwin. Today we rarely (almost never) hear the name Alfred Russell Wallace. In the past there have been a few documentaries making a rare attempt to focus on the biography of this very influential biologist including an episode in Jacob Bronowski’s 1973 The Ascent of Man […]

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  • An Interactive Exhibit – “The Legacy of a Lifetime of Collecting: The Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer Story”

    An Interactive Exhibit – “The Legacy of a Lifetime of Collecting: The Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer Story”

    The interactive exhibit “The Legacy of a Lifetime of Collecting: The Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer Story,” was inspired by a fascinating collection of army ants and their hundreds of closely associated organisms, or “guests.” The specimens collected over the course of 50 years of fieldwork in South and Central America by the late Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer. Filmed entirely on location at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica Rettenmeyers produced a two part documentary series on this ecologically […]

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  • A Diverse Tropical Forest Canopy and Crown Shyness – Dimitar Karanikolov (2019)

    A Diverse Tropical Forest Canopy and Crown Shyness – Dimitar Karanikolov (2019)

    This is a wonderfully poetic and at the same time quite informative piece of short observation captured by the photographer Dimitar Karanikolov. The video successfully demonstrates a botanical phenomenon known as “crown shyness” by providing a nicely stabilized vertical view of canopy trees swaying by the wind in Tulum Mexico. Tree canopies are some of the most diverse sections in tropical forest. The exact mechanism of crown shyness is still not resolved but there are quite a few convincing hypotheses. […]

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  • The Red-Shanked Douc Langur – Ryan Deboodt (2019)

    The Red-Shanked Douc Langur – Ryan Deboodt (2019)

    The douc langurs are among the most visually striking primates in the world. There three species of douc langurs: the red-shanked douc langur (Pygathrix nemaeus), black-shanked douc langur (Pygathix nigripes) and gray-shanked douc langur (Pygathix cinereus). All are endemic to Indochina. Here the filmmaker Ryan Deboodt has filmed the Red-Shanked Douc Langur of the Vietnam forests. Habitat loss, disease and trappers are threatening this species. Doucs are found in a variety of habitats: from lowland to mountainous terrain up to […]

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  • Bald Eagle Cam – Live from Minnesota – Breeding Season 2019

    Bald Eagle Cam – Live from Minnesota – Breeding Season 2019

    The 2019 breeding season for a pair of iconic Bald Eagles in Minnesota is continuing. After pair bonding and nest repair (nestoration) eagles started incubating eggs again in! A pair of iconic Bald Eagles have been raising their chicks in Central Minnesota on a nest constructed at 75 feet altitude on a cottonwood tree. You can learn more about this nest from the FAQs page of the website hosting this nestcam. Last year on March 9th Mom got into labor […]

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  • The Axolotl: A Cut Above The Rest – Science Friday/Christian Baker (2016)

    The Axolotl: A Cut Above The Rest – Science Friday/Christian Baker (2016)

    Tissue regeneration is a fascinating biological subject. Many invertebrate organisms such as crabs, starfishes, sponges, jawless fish such as the lampreys and planarian flatworms can regenerate body parts. Among the vertebrates salamanders, especially the axolotl is a legendary study species for biologists. The axolotl is a highly endangered Mexican salamander with a fascinating ability to regenerate. Curiously, although both are amphibians salamanders can regenerate but frogs cannot. Comparison of such contrasting groups is particularly useful in understanding organ and tissue […]

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  • Sounds of Survival – Katie Garrett / bioGraphic (2018)

    Sounds of Survival – Katie Garrett / bioGraphic (2018)

    “Sound can be a tool for conservation”. — Ben Mirin Sound can be extremely informative in wildlife context. Many animals including mammals from cetaceans to bats appear to have mastered acoustic communication. Cooperative animals such as marmosets can take turns during their conversations and relay multi layer information through seemingly simple high pitched calls such as identity, age, location and gender which can be very effective in dense forest environments. Therefore it is real important to tap into this highly […]

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  • UConn BioBlitz 2015

    UConn BioBlitz 2015

    On July 24th – 25th 2015, 49 experts collaborated with >150 citizen scientists to identify 1180 species in a 24-hour marathon of biodiversity survey (see a meta analysis at the bottom of this post). The UConn BioBlitz 2015 had many workshops that continued day and night including Bat activity monitoring, Blacklight/Mercury lamp curtain survey for nocturnal insects, setting camera traps for mammal activity, owl prowl, science expose, ants exploring space as well as tours of Collections Facility and the UConn […]

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  • Becoming: Development of a Salamander Embryo – Jan van IJken (2018)

    Becoming: Development of a Salamander Embryo – Jan van IJken (2018)

    Everyone of us started life from one single cell formed by the fusion of an egg and a sperm. That single cell gave rise to every structure in our bodies. How did that happen? Salamanders especially the axolotl are known to be able to regenerate limbs while frogs and lizards cannot. How and why? The Dutch filmmaker Jan van IJken did a superb job bringing a fresh new artistic look into the fascinating process of vertebrate embryo development. The original […]

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