Home » Evolution (Page 10)

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  One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue – Carl Sagan (1980)

  January 23, 2013 at 11:22 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

  The Cosmos, is a thirteen part documentary produced written and presented by Carl Sagan aiming to expand public understanding of science. It is one of the most successful series and is perhaps the best one for telling the fascinating history of science reaching audiences in 60 countries since it has been aired. It inspired generations to become scientists from all over the world. It was written with such poetic vigor that in title of every episode there is an attractive […]

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  Kozmik Bestede Bir Nota – Carl Sagan (1980)

  January 23, 2013 at 11:15 pm / Evolution, Video

  Carl Sagan 1980’li yıllarda televizyonu olan pek çok evin salonuna misafir olmuş Amerika’lı bir astronomdur. Onüç bölümden oluşan Kozmoz dizisi 6.3 milyon dolarlık bir bütçe ile hazırlanarak 60’dan fazla ülke televizyonunda yayınlandı. Gelmiş geçmiş en başarılı bilim belgeselinin tarzı öylesine şiirseldir ki, bölümlerin başlıkları bile işlenen konuyu kavramada yardımcı derin benzetmeler içeren özenle seçilmiş kelimelerden oluşur. Carl Sagan, “kişisel bir yolculuk” olarak nitelediği eserinde bizleri yolculuğuna yoldaş eder. Bilim tarihinde nefes kesici bir gezintiye çıkarız birlikte. Dizi içinde bir biyolog […]

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  After Death: Fossil Carrion Beetles

  July 30, 2012 at 3:32 pm / Evolution, Video

  Until very recently the oldest known carrion beetle fossils were 50 million years old. The fossil discoveries coming from Daohugou and Jehol rock deposits in Northeastern China extended our knowledge further back till 160 million years ago. During Jurassic period dinosaur abundance had a cascading influence on animal world. When a dinosaur died its carcass became a protein rich multi-generational feeding island. Insects including carrion beetles most certainly exploited this opportunity. Therefore carrion beetle evolution took a new turn leading […]

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  What is A Species? Christina Choate (2011)

  May 8, 2012 at 6:37 pm / Evolution, Video

  How did diversity of life on our planet form? How does it maintain itself? Species concept is most certainly a very convenient construct for biologists who are trying to understand life. Rightly so, Charles R. Darwin titled his masterpiece as On the Origin of Species for the concept was crucial in developing a theory that is central to biology. The species argument is quite parallel to that of transitional fossils. Both terms are plastic and represent data points along a […]

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  When and Why We Lost Hair?

  March 9, 2012 at 1:16 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Nova Documentaries, Video

  When and why our ancestors began to wear clothing is a curious story. Clothing may have emerged for insulation of body heat. Similarly it also have provided a means to carry things and improve mobility. Cold snaps engulfed the earth many times. Using ice cores from Antarctica scientists identified 8 glacial cycles within the last 800 thousand years alone. An archaelogical site from Israel provides the earliest evidence of controlled fire by humans spanning the same time period. We know […]

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  The Botany of Desire – Michael Pollan – PBS (2009)

  February 15, 2012 at 10:40 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, PBS Nature, Video

  Domestication is a defining feature of recent human evolution. In animals first trait selected by humans was behavior. In plants harvestability through selection of non-shattering seeds was the first trait of domestication. Plant domestication paved the way to agriculture which enabled highly specialized sedentary human societies. Domesticated plants differ from their wild ancestors in distinct ways that can be categorized under a term called as the domestication syndrome. Domestication syndrome includes reduced shattering of seeds (seeds don’t separate from the […]

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  Ants – Nature’s Secret Power (2006)

  January 29, 2012 at 11:23 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Ants, bees and wasps make up only 3 percent of animal diversity yet they may constitute up to 50 percent of the total animal biomass in land habitats. Bert Hölldobler is a leading entomologist (scientist who studies insects). He collaborated with ant biologist E.O. Wilson and developed the field of Sociobiology. The documentary does an excellent job introducing us observations coming from both natural and laboratory setting. First observation comes from the European red wood ants (Formica polyctena). These ants […]

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  Daytime Hunting of Barred Owl (Strix varia)

  January 16, 2012 at 10:42 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  On April 16th 2011, a barred owl glided over my head while I was filming something else along the Orange Trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. Hunting during daytime indicates that this individual has extra mouths to feed. You can hear the altruistic alarm calls of other nervous birds and rodents. The high pitched alarm call (of a chipmunk?) is particularly audible immediately before each move of the owl. I deliberately kept the scenes long […]

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