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Chase Tag Championship and the Evolutionary Dynamics of Predator Prey Interaction

November 4, 2023 at 11:10 am / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Playing chase is arguably one of the oldest in the game repertoire of human and non-human mammals. Chase Tag Championship is a sport event that has its roots in the parkour movement. Here, we see a fantastically beautiful demonstration of performance and human agility with fairly clear rules. Of course, biologically speaking there’s also a quite interesting story in terms of evolution of the predator-prey dynamics in the game. In the anatomy of a hunt researchers have shown that predators […]

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Can Money Stop Deforestation? – The Economist (2023)

September 29, 2023 at 12:08 pm / Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

In the 1980’s due to governmental policies favoring agriculture, the landcover of tropical rainforests decreased from 75 % (in the 1940s) down to 21 % in Costa Rica. Many tropical countries followed suit. The world’s largest rainforest the Amazon also experienced decades of deforestation. Money clearly drives deforestation. But can it also help save the forests? The promise of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) is fairly straightforward: Forest owners keep their standing vegetation intact and in return […]

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From rainforest to charcoal | DW Documentary (2019)

September 28, 2023 at 8:21 am / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

Charcoal production takes a heavy toll on African forests. For instance in Mozambic, the economical drive is so intense that even valuable food trees providing monetary income such as the cashew trees (Anacardium occidentale) are harvested. In 2019 an investigative journalism revealed that Europe has been burning American trees as biomass for power generation. Something similar is sinisterly happening in European charcoal market as the investigative journalism of Deutsche Welle finds out. Europeans consume approximately 800,000 tons of charcoal for […]

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Stalking Seal on the Spring Ice – Quentin Brown & Asen Balıkçı (1968)

June 7, 2022 at 7:58 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

Diverse ways of sustenance on the frontiers of the world fascinate us about Human adaptability and effective resource use. Stalking for seals on sea ice is one of the best documented hunting technique which employs quite exceptional behavioral deception tactics. The hunter uses a cognitive ability called “theory of mind” to overcome behavioral tripwires for prey to escape. The hunter projects the world from the view point of the prey and adjusts own behavior to a successful intercept. The hunter […]

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Newtok | The Water is Rising / Patagonia Films (2022)

June 7, 2022 at 11:27 am / Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

Human induced climate change is creating fast coastal landscape changes and during that process turn many indigenous communities into climate refugees. Co-directed by Michael Kirby Smith and Andrew Burton, Newtok | The Water is Rising highlights demise of a population. Rising sea levels threaten Newtok, Alaska. The Arctic permafrost is melting at an increasing rate. Due to Polar Amplification the speed of climatic change in the Arctic is rather fast. To keep their culture and community intact, the Yup’ik residents […]

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Cancer Immunotherapy – Nature Reviews Genetics

May 7, 2022 at 3:50 pm / Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

Cancer touches almost everybody’s life. Here in this playlist you can watch a comprehensive summary about molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in cancer biology. Based on this knowledge, various new approaches for treatment is now on the agenda. Some have already showed considerable success. Advances in cancer therapy comes from a number of cutting edge studies and projects including genomics, antibody research and metabolic understanding of cancer cells. The Cancer Genome Atlas project has been revolutionary in understanding the genomic […]

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Popped Secret: The Mysterious Origin of Corn – Nathan Dappen & Neil Losin – HHMI (2015)

May 1, 2022 at 10:02 am / Evolution, Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

Domestication of plants and animals is a key transformation in recent Human evolutionary history leading to sedentary farming societies. Domestication of Maize particularly followed a different trajectory from the agricultural crops of the old world. This HHMI documentary tells how the ancestral wild grass called Teosinte was domesticated to evolve into Maize. In the old world, most domesticated grasses had a surprisingly similar “first step” that paved the way towards agriculture. In old world grasses including rice, wheat, barley and […]

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NASA TV live

December 26, 2021 at 8:47 am / Cosmological, Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

Ever since the successful landing of Mars rover Curiosity in August 6th of 2012, NASA TV broadcasts have experienced a big surge in viewers. Since then many other successful missions and interesting Earth-based as well as cosmic phenomena have been transmitted to curious masses of viewers all over the world. NASA TV has a rich body of programming including recording and analysis of significant global events such as the Chelyabinsk airburst event. There are regular broadcasts from the International Space […]

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Refik Anadol – Machine Halucinations (2016-2017)

September 25, 2021 at 6:30 pm / Human Nature, Video

Science can be beautiful. Art can be informative. In NatureDocumentaries.org the motto “science can be beautiful and art can be informative” is a valued proposition. For instance, In Nomine Terra Calens: In the Name of a Warming Earth is an example for such kind of art-science integration that informs us about the most pressing global issue of our time: Global Warming. Refik Anadol is a successful data/media artist who in his own words “uses data as pigment” to create his […]

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Domestication as a Signature of Human Nature / One Man and His Dog – BBC (1985)

August 10, 2021 at 10:06 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Johnny Wilson and his dogs earned their fame when they won BBC2’s One Man and His Dog competition. Here in this short clip we see a remarkable section from the program that highlights a signature of one of the hallmark characters in Human nature: Domestication. Domestication expanded Human abilities beyond the natural boundaries. Note that domestication in animals almost always starts with selection of “behavior”. Using this unintentional primary cue as a starting point Humans in different parts of the […]

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My Africa – David Allen (2018) | Conservation International – (360 film)

March 4, 2021 at 1:25 pm / Human Nature, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The the short film “My Africa” is directed by David Allen and narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o. Commissioned by the Conservation International, it takes viewers to an elephant sanctuary in Kenya, where a community is reknitting the bonds that have long enabled people and wildlife to coexist. My Africa is presented in stunningly immersive virtual reality through a series of establishment shots of the African savanna including lions, wildebeests, and elephants. The movie introduces the intensity of wildlife […]

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Human Bot Fly – Piotr Naskrecki (2015)

August 5, 2020 at 12:10 am / Human Nature, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Piotr Naskrecki achieved what many tropical biologists (including the author of this post) tried but failed multiple times: raising a tropical Human bot fly (Dermatobia hominis). This parasite is frequently covered by major TV channels since it is quite gruesome to the unititiated and most certainly attracts viewers. In my opinion this is the best bot fly documentary ever. In the video Dr. Naskrecki outlines the life cycle very well with the calmness of an entomologist without drama. You can […]

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Mars on Earth – The Guardian (2015)

May 16, 2020 at 9:07 pm / Cosmological, Human Nature, Video

As the Mars Curiosity Rover is scouring the planet surface and expanding our knowledge NASA is working on ways to help prepare future colonists using an experimental enclosure called Hi-SEAS which stands for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. Hi-SEAS is an exploration of Human nature. How will a small group of space travelers cooperate and solve problems external and internal inside a confined habitat? A return mission to the red planet will be long. It will take about […]

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Rosewood: The Tree that Bleeds – BBC (2020)

May 16, 2020 at 12:14 pm / BBC documentaries, Human Nature, Video

The investigative journalism by BBC Africa Eye summarizes the plight of one of the most trafficked species the Rosewood tree. This tree is distinct for when it’s cut it bleeds a blood red sap. The tree belongs to Dalbergia genus nested within the legume family. Dalbergia species can have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal, anti-ulcerogenic, anti-spermicidal, larvicidal and mosquito repellant properties used in traditional medicine.The genus has a wide pantropical distribution, native to the tropical regions of Central and South […]

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How The Coronavirus Attacks Your Lungs | KQED / Deep Look (2020)

May 7, 2020 at 8:58 am / Human Nature, Molecular Nature, PBS Nature

DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. In this special episode they are doing a vital job by disseminating reliable information on SARS-CoV-2 virus which leads to COVID-19 respiratory disease. The BBC Documentary The Hidden Life of the Cell has done a wonderful job of providing a visual story telling by animating series of events leading to an Adenovirus infection. You can also see how different coronaviruses […]

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