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The Axolotl: A Cut Above The Rest – Science Friday/Christian Baker (2016)

March 2, 2019 at 8:57 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Tissue regeneration is a fascinating biological subject. Many invertebrate organisms such as crabs, starfishes, sponges, jawless fish such as the lampreys and planarian flatworms can regenerate body parts. Among the vertebrates salamanders, especially the axolotl is a legendary study species for biologists. The axolotl is a highly endangered Mexican salamander with a fascinating ability to regenerate. Curiously, although both are amphibians salamanders can regenerate but frogs cannot. Comparison of such contrasting groups is particularly useful in understanding organ and tissue […]

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Sounds of Survival – Katie Garrett / bioGraphic (2018)

March 2, 2019 at 7:17 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

“Sound can be a tool for conservation”. — Ben Mirin Sound can be extremely informative in wildlife context. Many animals including mammals from cetaceans to bats appear to have mastered acoustic communication. Cooperative animals such as marmosets can take turns during their conversations and relay multi layer information through seemingly simple high pitched calls such as identity, age, location and gender which can be very effective in dense forest environments. Therefore it is real important to tap into this highly […]

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UConn BioBlitz 2015

February 23, 2019 at 3:37 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

On July 24th – 25th 2015, 49 experts collaborated with >150 citizen scientists to identify 1180 species in a 24-hour marathon of biodiversity survey (see a meta analysis at the bottom of this post). The UConn BioBlitz 2015 had many workshops that continued day and night including Bat activity monitoring, Blacklight/Mercury lamp curtain survey for nocturnal insects, setting camera traps for mammal activity, owl prowl, science expose, ants exploring space as well as tours of Collections Facility and the UConn […]

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Identifying the Key Genes for Regeneration | HHMI BioInteractive (2017)

February 19, 2019 at 8:14 pm / Evolution, Video

All multi-cellular organisms have a healing response. Most have the ability to regenerate lost body parts. Plants regenerate in fairly similar ways across diverse families. Animals on the other hand show a remarkable diversity. One can shred a sponge into pieces but the cells can rearrange and organize themselves in a surprisingly rapid manner. Human tissue and organ regeneration is a curious goal for medicine. However in order to achieve this one must understand whether there are common cellular and […]

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Becoming: Development of a Salamander Embryo – Jan van IJken (2018)

February 10, 2019 at 9:59 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

Everyone of us started life from one single cell formed by the fusion of an egg and a sperm. That single cell gave rise to every structure in our bodies. How did that happen? Salamanders especially the axolotl are known to be able to regenerate limbs while frogs and lizards cannot. How and why? The Dutch filmmaker Jan van IJken did a superb job bringing a fresh new artistic look into the fascinating process of vertebrate embryo development. The original […]

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What Good are Introns Anyway? – Nature (2019)

February 6, 2019 at 2:56 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

Molecular Nature Introns are stretches of non-coding regions interspersed with the coding DNA in the genes of eukaryotic organisms. They are widespread, common and sometimes are ridiculously long stressing the economy of the cell. Burden of long introns is not limited to DNA replication which happens only once during cell division but continues to manifest itself at the transcription level where multiple rounds of RNA polymerase II activity consume energy proportional to the longevity of the cell. For instance, the […]

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A Giant Forest Ant (Dinomyrmex gigas) Worker Foraging in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

January 30, 2019 at 12:24 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

This short observation was filmed on Nov 23rd 2016 in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore. Malaysian giant forest ant (Dinomyrmex gigas) is a central place forager. The colony structure is described as polydomous. Workers communicate efficiently and recruit effectively to optimize foraging yield. Large workers have evolved ergonomy to be self-sufficient in most tasks. Its diet is mostly honeydew and excrements but can also prey on insects. These ants have been reported to have up to 14 subterranean nests and […]

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The Origin of Species: Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree – Dan Lewitt / HHMI (2013)

January 30, 2019 at 12:07 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

Anole lizards together with cichlid fishes and Darwin’s finches are one of the star organisms in studying a rapid evolution pattern called adaptive radiation. Jonathan Losos is a veteran field biologist that has studied the traits that enable dozens of anole species to adapt to different niches in the islands of the Caribbean. Differences in limb length, body shape, and toepad size allow different species to be successful on the ground. However on vegetation surfaces such as thin branches, or […]

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Galapagos Finch Evolution – Dan Lewitt – HHMI (2013)

January 28, 2019 at 1:53 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

The Galapagos is home to many iconic species. Each are unique on their own and form a case study in evolutionary biology. Darwin’s finches and mocking birds with their striking beak morphology provided the first clues to Darwin in formulating the mechanism of evolution by natural selection. The Galapagos was the origin of the Origin of the Species. Finches in the island of Daphne Major have been studied for more than 40 years by Princeton University scientists Peter and Rosemary […]

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Virtual Reconstruction of the Antikythera Mechanism – Michael Wright & Mogi Vicentini (2009)

January 24, 2019 at 7:51 pm / Human Nature, Video

Trying to predict future is one of the characteristics of Human nature which ultimately gave us the scientific method. Antikythera Mechanism is one of the best demonstrations of human intellect attempting to understand nature systematically. The contraption is most certainly a very complex device. It is an impressively accurate “analog model” of our then earth-centric universe. The Antikythera Mechanism was built like a clock. Trains of interlocking gearwheels controlled the movements of a minimum of seven pointers perfectly tracking the […]

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Backstage in the Wild: Yale Insights into Chimpanzee – David Watts (2012)

January 16, 2019 at 9:22 am / Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

This short but densely informative interview is a must-see resource about our closest primate cousins, the chimpanzees. Yale University Anthropologist Dr. David Watts educates us about social interactions and behavior of chimpanzees based on what has been learned from long-term non-Human primate observations. Observation of his and his co-workers at the University of Michigan from the Kibale National Park and Ugandan national park Ngogo formed the basis for feature films such as the Chimpanzee made by the veteran BBC filmmaker […]

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The Last Neanderthal – Pierangelo Pirak (2016)

January 2, 2019 at 2:32 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Neandertals form a curious part of Human heritage. Fossil and genetic evidence suggest that the two Human populations split sometime between 400,000 to 800,000 years ago. Neandertals went extinct 30,000 years ago. For decades, the general impression about the Neandertals were as brutish, primitive beings. However the more we investigate the more we learn and become intrigued about these master ice age survivors. The director Pierangelo Pirak’s documentary is a concatenation of multiple short episodes exploring issues such as what […]

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Evolution Game – North Star Games (2014)

December 26, 2018 at 1:12 am / Evolution, Video

The concept of evolution is one of the central themes in Nature Documentaries. A review of games designed to teach evolution in Nature Magazine prompted a search for other endeavors. Among the three games reviewed Evolution was evaluated as by far the best. There has been quite a few attempts to introduce evolution in game format. One game called “Life as a Lizard” is adapted as a role play in classroom setting. Another game also explores major tenets of evolutionary […]

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OSIRIS-REx Mission to Asteroid Bennu – NASA (2018)

December 7, 2018 at 6:21 pm / Cosmological, Global Patterns, Video

How did our Sun, the Earth, and the planets form and evolve? Asteroids and comets are the early building blocks of the solar system. They even may hold clues to how life has started on our and perhaps in other planets. The asteroid Bennu contains information going back to four and a half billion years. Visitation and sample collection from asteroid Bennu will be very informative. Here you can watch a concatenation of four videos produced by the NASA Goddard […]

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Pygmy Seahorses as Masters of Camouflage – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2015)

November 13, 2018 at 7:51 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Natural history, Video

Environmental cues can have profound effects on the developmental trajectory of juveniles. When predatory dragonfly nymphs are present, tadpoles develop bigger tails with fast twitch muscles. Similarly the crustacean water fleas (Daphnia) develop helmet structures preventing fish to swallow them easily. Epigenetics is a relatively new branch of genetics but we have learned quite a lot in a few decades. The molecular mechanism of what evolutionary biologists described as phenotypic plasticity – biological ability to generate multiple phenotypes from a […]

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