Posts by Uzay Sezen | Nature Documentaries

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Secrets of the Hive – Why Puerto Rico’s Killer Bees Stopped Killing – Smithsonian Institution (2015)

October 27, 2015 at 1:04 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Human Nature, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Secrets of the Hive is a Smithsonian Institution documentary directed by Dennis Wells. It focuses on the decline of the honeybees and reviews potential solutions to restore pollination service provided by these important domesticated insects. A major emphasis of the documentary is on the Africanized honeybees. These bees are a result of a failed experiment that started with good intentions in Brazil. Researchers in 1950s wanted to introduce the genetic vigor lost in honeybees due to domestication. Trials to selectively […]

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DNA transcription as the First Step of the Central Dogma of Biology | HHMI (2015)

October 24, 2015 at 1:26 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

What reads the information stored in our genes? How is it read? DNA transcription is the first step. Transcription is an amazingly beautiful process that take place in every (every!) living cell. In this animation produced by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute – HHMI you can see how a multi-part enzyme called RNA Polymerase II reads and writes the information stored in DNA into RNA. This is the first step of the Central Dogma of biology. RNA polymerase is a […]

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A Movie of RNA Polymerase II Transcription – Cheung & Cramer (2012)

October 6, 2015 at 3:54 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

This unnarrated molecular animation by Alan Cheung and Patrick Cramer details the first step of the Central Dogma of biology where the messenger RNA becomes synthesized from it’s DNA template. Enzymes that read information on DNA and produce the RNA counterparts are known as RNA polymerases. There are three types of RNA polymerase enzymes (RNA polymerase I, II and III). Here the working mechanism of type II that reads protein coding genes is shown based on multiple scientific studies spanning […]

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Common Mallow Pollinated by Dagger Fly

October 4, 2015 at 7:05 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Common Mallow (Malva neglecta) Pollinated by Dagger Fly (Empididae). Filmed on 2015 May 12th, in Postacı Halil sokak Ferahevler, Istanbul. When the talk subject comes to pollination the buzzing image of bees appear in our heads. Yet, many other insect groups contribute to the pollination service including flies (Diptera). Here you can see a dagger fly (it is also known as dancing fly) visiting an edible wild plant the common mallow (Malva neglecta). Dagger flies may not appear to be […]

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Dagger Flies (Empididae) Mating with Nuptial Gift

October 4, 2015 at 7:05 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Dagger flies Mating. Filmed in Sami Dino Parkı, Ferahevler, İstanbul on May 12th 2015. Male hilarine flies (Diptera: Empididae: Empidinae) present their mates with silk-wrapped gifts. The nuptial gift keeps the female busy during copulation. The silk around the gift is produced by specialized cells located in the foreleg basitarsus of the male fly. Here in this observation the hind legs of the male appear to have multiple functions: They form a resting platform for the female and at the […]

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Planet Ant – Life Inside the Colony BBC (2012)

October 2, 2015 at 10:39 pm / BBC documentaries, Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Self-organization skills of ants are impressive. How do they achieve such large-scale project management? Without central control individual behavior of each worker ant contributes to the collective emergent behavior. Once they discover a resource they are extremely efficient in utilizing it. We have a lot to learn from them. This documentary is quite unique in its approach. It documents an entire leafcutter ant colony (Atta cephalotes) re-organize itself from scratch in an artificial nest purposefully built to observe colony-scale behavior […]

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Life in the Universe – The Economist (2015)

October 2, 2015 at 1:53 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Does life exist outside of our planet? If so, are there intelligent life forms out there? How did life get started on our World? The Economist makes a quick tour of scientists who have been working on such questions. Frank Drake in his famous 1961 “Drake Equation” stated that the number of life-bearing planets must be a function of their host stars. How many planets have formed around those stars, what fraction of those planets are suitable for life, on […]

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What Caused the Cambrian Explosion? – The Economist (2015)

September 3, 2015 at 4:33 pm / Evolution, Global Patterns

It was a big curiosity for early geologists. For roughly 90% of the Earth’s history it appeared as if there was no life. After this long static period at about 542 million years from present life forms as we know of today began to appear bursting over a relatively short time (over 20 million years). Colloquially, this time period is called “Cambrian Explosion”. All of these life forms were of course aquatic: Annelids, arthropods, brachiopods, echinoderms, molluscs and ancestors of […]

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Aristotle’s Silkworm (Saturnia pyri) in Endemic Liquidambar Forest

August 19, 2015 at 10:02 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed in Günlüklü forest, Fethiye, Turkey on May 27th 2015. A Turkish version of this article was published in the Atlas Magazine. Saturnia pyri is the largest moth in Europe. It lives in Southern Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa but it occasionally makes a northward move. It was recorded in England only once in 1984. Its caterpillars are polyphagous and feed on many different tree species such as blackthorn, ash, walnut, poplar, plum, apple, pear and cherry (please […]

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Aristotle’s Silkworm / Great Peacock Moth (Saturnia pyri) Life Cycle – Adam Grochowalski (2015)

August 19, 2015 at 10:01 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Great Peacock Moth / Aristotle’s Silkworm (Saturnia pyri) Life Cycle – Adam Grochowalski, Kraków, Poland (2015). The filmmaker Adam Grochowalski of the Kraków University of Technology found the female butterfly in the Komarno district of Slovakia. The butterfly was attracted to light at night. He brought the female butterfly to his home studio in Kraków Poland and captured almost the entire life cycle in exquisite detail. The observations include emergence from the eggs, larval (caterpillar) stages, pupation (chrysalis) and overwintering […]

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Protecting Appalachia’s Hellbenders – The Last Dragons – Freshwater Illustrated (2014)

August 14, 2015 at 9:15 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The Last Dragons is a part of a series from Freshwater Illustrated including A Deeper Creek: Watchable Waters of Appalachia and Hidden Rivers. The series were screened in EcoFocus Film Festival of Athens GA in 2014. Filmed on location in Conesauga River in Geargia and Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina by Freshwaters Illustrated this short episode focuses on monitoring and conservation efforts on highly endangered hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). The natural history of these elusive giant salamanders has never been subject […]

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Chasing El Niño – Carol L. Fleisher – PBS NOVA (1998)

August 13, 2015 at 9:42 am / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, Nova Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

Can we predict El Niño? Moreover can we calculate it’s severity and effects on different parts of the world? On board the research ship Ka’imimoana scientists carry out measurements and then build computer models to understand the climate cycle that produces El Niño. The documentary “Chasing El Niño” was released by the aftermath of an intense El Niño event observed during 1997/1998 measured. In March 2015 climatologists have started to detect early signs of another one beginning to develop. They […]

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The Shape of Life: Sponges – PBS (2002)

August 2, 2015 at 9:30 pm / Evolution, Natural history, PBS Nature, Video

Evolutionarily, sponges are considered to be the oldest and most ancestral surviving species of the multicellular animal lineage going back to more than 750 million years ago. They are notorious filter feeders. Famous German zoologist Ernst Haeckel quite accurately illustrated many sponges as early as 1872. They have an extraordinary capacity to filter dissolved nutrients through a specialized group of cells called choanocyte. Encrusting sponge tissues are made of choanocytes forming canals that converge at the openings called oscula where […]

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Before Mars – Novo Mundo (Episode I) – National Geographic (2016)

June 14, 2015 at 9:40 am / Human Nature, Video

A defining feature of Human nature is exploration. We are hard wired with curiosity. It instinctively drives us to wonder what is behind the next hill. On planetary scale the Moon and the Mars are the nearest objects of interest in this endeavor. In this half-dramatized docu-feature film the National Geographic is aiming to inspire explorers that will colonize Mars. The mini-series takes place both in the future and in the present day. Episodes include interviews with influential people in […]

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Red Goat Moth (Cossus cossus) Caterpillar Searching for Pupation Site

May 16, 2015 at 4:28 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Recorded on May 4th 2015 at the Atatürk Arboretum of Istanbul University, Bahçeköy, Türkiye. The individual in the recording most probably belongs to Cossus cossus gueruenensis reported from Asia Minor. The caterpillar has reached its final growth stage as a caterpillar and is frantically searching for a place to burrow itself in the forest floor to become a pupa. Pupation is the final stage of a caterpillar before metamorphosing into adult butterfly form. The developmental transformation in these insects has […]

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