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An Illustrated Introduction to Speciation – Cornell Lab of Ornithology (2013)

December 4, 2013 at 8:46 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Cornell Bird Lab produced a series of quite friendly short video programs to provide a scientific explanation for how new species have evolved (and are evolving). Indeed, how did 39 different bird of paradise species grouped in 15 genera evolved from one humble crow-like ancestor over 20 million years? At the heart of the story lies the biological species definition which is one of the many definitions biologists have derived for the species concept. Long-distance movement is a prerequisite for […]

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Mechanisms of Evolution – Philipp Dettmer (2013)

November 9, 2013 at 8:50 pm / Evolution, Video

Understanding how evolution works is fundamental for understanding nature. Mechanisms of Evolution is an infographic attempt to explain this very important concept. Philipp Dettmer is the person behind the concept, design and storyboarding of this production. Well crafted it is, the video is quite informative to reveal some of the misconceptions about Theory of Evolution. It is also missing one major mechanism called Genetic Drift whose theoretical foundations were laid in 1930s during the Modern Synthesis by influential geneticist Sewall […]

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Evolution in Action – Campus Juncos at UCSD

October 15, 2013 at 10:31 am / Evolution, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Researchers from Indiana University at Bloomington has produced a series of videos titled “Ordinary Extraordinary Junco” covering a curious bird species belonging to genus Junco that has colonized the campus of the University of California at San Diego. We have decided to highlight the 6th episode of the series but other episodes are available for viewing from the vimeo channel of the project. The series are designed to reach public and student audiences of all backgrounds and ages. The key […]

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Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond (2005) episode 1

August 18, 2013 at 1:15 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Guns, Germs and Steel is a landmark Pulitzer prize winning book by Jared Diamond published in 1997. It is a very successful non-racist whirlwind tour of human history. Throughout the book historical and geographical roots of global inequality and resource distribution is explored. This first episode is dedicated to plant and animal domestication in different geographical settings. You can find a great encapsulation of this episode published in Nature Magazine in 2002. There’s also a simplified narrative of the book […]

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Harvest of the Seasons – Jacob Bronowski (1973)

August 17, 2013 at 12:26 pm / BBC documentaries, Evolution, Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

Harvest of the Seasons is the second episode of a thirteen-part documentary series called The Ascent of Man written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. The series reached wide audiences for Bronowski’s highly intellectual but simple and convincing analysis. Much of his long monologues were unscripted and were a source of inspiration for creating a template for Carl Sagan’s hugely sucessful Cosmos series. The motto used by Bronowski “A personal view” became “A personal voyage” in Sagan’s. The episode provides an […]

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Is Picture Wing Fly a Predatory Jumping Spider Mimic?

August 6, 2013 at 3:45 pm / Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

The video of this picture wing fly (Delphinia picta) was recorded on April 24th 2011 in Athens, GA. It has a curious wing pattern which resembles a jumping spider but is it really? Mimicry is a type of species interaction that evolves in response to prey, predators and parasites. Examples of mimicry is abundant in nature and provide compelling cases for natural selection. A classic example is Heliconius butterflies living in tropical America. Some Heliconius species show Batesian mimicry. Wing […]

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A Tour of a Section of Human Chromosome 11

July 21, 2013 at 8:17 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

This video produced by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories takes us on a tour of about 650,000 nucleotides from the tip of the short arm of human chromosome 11. From a distance we can discern 28 genes, denoted by red and yellow blocks. The red exons carry the DNA code for protein, while the yellow introns are noncoding. Also prominent are more than 500 transposons, or jumping genes, denoted by blue and purple blocks. If we zoom in, we can take […]

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An Illustrated Introduction to Natural Selection & Sexual Selection – Cornell Lab of Ornithology (2013)

March 10, 2013 at 1:04 am / Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Cornell Bird Lab produced a series of quite informative teaching materials to provide scientific explanation for how new species have evolved (and are evolving). Evolution is not only a struggle for existence, it is also an effort to pass on genes to next generation. Modern biology has described mechanisms of evolution with fine details and this video effectively tells how natural selection works with three cartoonified traits in an island setting at the first few minutes. In many animals females […]

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Revealing the Origins of Life – PBS (2011)

March 6, 2013 at 11:28 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Nova Documentaries, Video

How life began is a very fundamental question. This short documentary is an outstanding primer for scientific explanation of the origin of life. Featuring Nobel prize winner Jack Szostack of Harvard University and John Sutherland of University of Manchester, it explains the chemical evolution leading to the formation of RNA. Scientists all agree that formation of basic building blocks of life is suprisingly very easy. The burning question is how do they react to form complex molecules? RNA world hypothesis […]

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Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air – PBS (2010)

March 6, 2013 at 5:03 pm / Evolution, Natural history, PBS Nature, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Hummingbirds. Today they are strictly found on American continent but there are hummingbird-like fossil specimens from Germany hinting that this group might have been more widespread in its evolutionary past. More than 8000 species of plants have evolved to get their pollination services from hummingbirds. In 2013 a 50 million year old fossil showed the earliest ancestor of hummingbirds. With a heart beating at 600 beats per minute hummingbirds are champions of survival. The PBS documentary explores a rich repertoire […]

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Carolina Cranesbill (Geranium carolinianum) Flower Self-pollination

January 24, 2013 at 10:30 am / Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

Dr. Rebecca Shirk has studied genetic diversity and adaptation in native and invasive populations of Carolina cranesbill (Geranium carolinianum) during her PhD project in Department of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia in Athens. Flowers of this genus has a quite diverse pollination strategy. Flowers come in a staggering diversity of forms. There are huge flowers; tiny flowers; flowers that never open; flowers with patterns that can’t be seen by the human eye; and extremely specialized flowers that are […]

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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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