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Paper Wasp Shaves (?) Caterpillar – Ron Goor (2013)

January 21, 2016 at 3:28 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video

The behavior of this paper wasp worker was recorded by Ron Goor in C & O Canal in Seneca Maryland, United States. At first glance it looks quite curious since it appears as if the wasp is shearing its prey like a sheep. However when viewed carefully the wasp is simply consuming the caterpillar most probably belonging to Virginian Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica) before flying back to its nest. While the worker wasp is literally taking “her cut” from the […]

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Long-term Behavioral Observations on Big Cats of Africa – Beverly and Dereck Joubert / TED Talk (2010)

January 6, 2016 at 1:48 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Short observations are relatively easy to capture and can be quite informative. On the other hand, long-term observations can be rather expensive and require dedication but enable recording of rare and unusual events. Beverly and Dereck Joubert are certainly one of the most successful long-term observers of our time. Events they capture on film are seemingly serendipitous. Such once in a life time events can only be recorded by being there on a long-term basis and require an almost unblinking […]

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Evolution Timeline (John Kyrk)

January 5, 2016 at 10:58 am / Evolution, Global Patterns, Video

[This video has no sound] Timelines organize information in a linear sequence and help us learn detailed linked events and processes. The interactive cosmological and geological timeline provides a gateway to understand one of the most progressive concepts in recent human history: Evolution. This screen capture video makes a quick introductory summary of cosmological, geological and biological evolution. Significant events since the very beginning of our universe are demonstrated in a chronological order. Evolutionary timeline by John Kyrk is a […]

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Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) – Biosphere 2

December 29, 2015 at 11:24 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Human Nature, Video

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)

December 26, 2015 at 8:23 pm / Global Patterns, Video

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

December 19, 2015 at 2:38 pm / Natural history, Video, webcams

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

December 13, 2015 at 10:43 pm / Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

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

December 13, 2015 at 10:42 pm / Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

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)

December 12, 2015 at 7:00 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Nova Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

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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Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life (1924)

November 19, 2015 at 12:13 pm / Human Nature, Technical Notes, Video

Filmed on location between Turkey and Iran, Grass is an amazing first ethnographical account of nomadic Bakhtiyari people. The subjects of this film later also were revisited by landmark documentaries like the “Harvest of the Seasons” episode of the Charles Bronowski’s Ascent of Man series in 1973. Similarly, Akira Kurosawa’s 1975 film Dersu Uzala, centered around an aboriginal Nanai tribesman and Werner Herzog’s Happy People (2013) are productions in this tradition. The film is contemporary to Robert Flaherty’s Flaherty’s Nanook […]

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A Tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau: Cries from the Deep (1981)

November 10, 2015 at 12:42 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Natural history, Video

Ever since the publication of his first book titled “The Silent World” in 1953 Jacques Yves Cousteau has generated multiple waves of inspiration worldwide. A documentary produced under the same title won the prestigious Palm d’Or award at Cannes Film Festival in 1956. This is a rare achievement among nature documentaries. Cousteau’s second big hit arrived in 1965 with another production titled World Without Sun documenting activities of six crew members living in Continental Shelf Station II at 10m depth […]

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Leonardo Da Vinci the Anatomist – Nature Video

October 27, 2015 at 7:47 pm / Human Nature, Video

Leonardo da Vinci transformed natural sciences by his careful observations, experiments and illustrations. He distinguished himself in the harsh world of the Medici ruled 16th Century Florence in the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople. In this video by Nature Magazine, Senior Curator Martin Clayton exlains three of Leonardo’s most intriguing anatomical studies. Today, Leonardo’s drawings kept in solander boxes in the Print Room in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. A selection of his drawings is on display in […]

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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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