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  • Long-wattled Umbrellabird Eating Oenocarpus fruit in the Chocó Forests of Ecuador – Luke Browne (2013)

    Long-wattled Umbrellabird Eating Oenocarpus fruit in the Chocó Forests of Ecuador – Luke Browne (2013)

    Long-wattled Umbrellabirds (Cephalopterus penduliger) are important seed dispersers for many plant species, especially the palm Oenocarpus bataua. Here, a motion-activated camera records a male Umbrellabird eating ripe Oenocarpus fruit on the ground at Bilsa Biological Station in the Chocó forests of western Ecuador. You can notice the pronounced wattle and crest characteristic of male Umbrellabirds. Because of extensive habitat loss across its range (Ecuador and Colombia), populations of Umbrellabirds are declining rapidly and are considered vulnerable to extinction. The Karubian […]

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  • Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) – Biosphere 2

    Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) – Biosphere 2

    Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett- Biosphere 2 started as quite an ambitious challenge. It crammed five biomes into 3 acres of sealed facility and tried to create a mesocosm experiment. It was a “ship-in-a-bottle” style miniaturization of ecosystems; a tiny little man-made Hawaii in the Arizona desert (Hawaii is the only place on our planet where all biomes of the world, excepting Arctic Tundra exist). Biomes of the Biosphere 2 were […]

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  • Rosetta Mission to Comet 67/P – Exploratorium (2015)

    Rosetta Mission to Comet 67/P – Exploratorium (2015)

    Paul Doherty of the Exploratorium explains phases of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in exquisite detail. Comets are extremely interesting celestial objects. They may have even played role in jump starting life on our planet. When and how chemistry became biology is a burning question for everyone. There has been a period way in the past during the early times of the Earth when meteorites and comets bombarded its surface. This period is known as […]

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  • Humboldt Bay Eagle Cam – Arcata CA

    Humboldt Bay Eagle Cam – Arcata CA

    Live streaming video by Ustream Main camera (above) Camera 2 (below) Live streaming video by Ustream Welcome to the nest of a pair of bald eagles in Humboldt Bay, Arcata, California. Constructed on top of a douglas fir tree this nest has a well recorded breeding history going back to 2006. In 2013 breeding season two nest cameras were installed by Institute for Wildlife Studies who monitors a number of active nests in the area. Humboldt Bay Eagles nest is […]

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  • Global Aerosol and Dust Dynamics – NASA SVS

    Global Aerosol and Dust Dynamics – NASA SVS

    The main video featured above consists of three interrelated parts produced separately by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) which has been producing highly engaging visualizations based on actual and simulated data about global processes running our planet. First narrated visualization shows transport of dust from the Africa to South America between 2007-2013 where the Sahara desert is the source and the tropical Amazon basin is the sink. The scale of interaction between the driest and the wettest places on earth […]

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  • Aerosols and Cloud Formation – NASA/SVS

    Aerosols and Cloud Formation – NASA/SVS

    When and where clouds form are important for climate science. Long-term observations have shown that at any given time less than 10 percent of the Earth’s skies are clear with no clouds. We most certainly want to know what is going on in the major 90 percent fraction covered with clouds of some type. Some clouds reflect the sun’s radiation while others trap outgoing heat that would otherwise be emitted to space. Tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the […]

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  • Coelacanth: The Fish That Time Forgot – PBS NOVA (2001)

    Coelacanth: The Fish That Time Forgot – PBS NOVA (2001)

    Coelacanth morphology and genome has been extremely informative in understanding tetrapod evolution. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was the curator of a natural history museum in East London. In 1938 a local fisher brought a curious fish specimen which was to become a major discovery in evolutionary biology. Latimer described the fish as Latimeria chalumnae. The fish was over 1 m long, bluish in color. Most interestingly it had fleshy fins that resembled the limbs of terrestrial vertebrates. The discovery was a hugely interesting […]

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