Recent Videos

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  How Does the Purple Bacteria Photosynthesize? Beckman Institute-UIUC (2015)

  March 28, 2016 at 11:03 am / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

  Imagine a time when our young Earth was spinning much faster and days were only 8 hours! Our sun was much cooler and less bright than today. There was no oxygen in the atmosphere. Those were the conditions when first photosynthetic organisms with purple pigments evolved in liquid environments. In this animation we see one such ancestral form of early anoxic photosynthesis taking place in the purple bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides in which oxygen is not produced. Life evolved into oxygen […]

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  The Science of Camera Sensors – FimmakerIQ (2015)

  March 24, 2016 at 11:17 pm / Technical Notes, Video

  Camera technology has come a long way since the legendary Akeley gyroscope camera that made filming of truly historic documentary films such as Nanook of the North (1922) and Grass (1922). Now everything digital, an overview of the modern camera sensors is useful for naturalists. This lecture by FilmmakerIQ is a part of the Technical Notes series by Nature Documentaries aiming to compile useful technical, theoretical and practical knowledge for documentary filmmakers. The episode illustrates the electronic working principles of […]

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  The History and Science of Lenses – FilmmakerIQ (2015)

  March 24, 2016 at 11:16 pm / Technical Notes, Video

  Glass has been a truly transformational material in Human history. Among many other remarkable things glass helped us understand and control properties of light. From photocopying machines to fiber optic cables glass revolutionized our lives. Gutenberg’s printing machine was a turning point with an unintended consequence. Printing created a huge demand for spectacles and glasswork craftsmanship in Europe literally exploded. Craftsmanship that built spectacles lead to building of more specialized optical instruments including microscopes, telescopes and eventually cameras. For all […]

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  Depth of Field and Lens Equivalents – FilmmakerIQ (2016)

  March 24, 2016 at 11:14 pm / Technical Notes, Video

  How does one achieve a sharp and clear image? What is depth of field? What is depth of focus? What affects their shallowness? This episode from FilmmakerIQ nicely explains the theory behind using the physics of light. Before starting the lecture you should have some basic understanding of the camera lenses such as the aperture. This is a part of the Technical Notes series of Nature Documentaries aiming to compile useful technical, theoretical and practical knowledge for documentary filmmakers. The […]

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  The History of Frame Rate for Film – FilmmakerIQ (2015)

  March 24, 2016 at 11:11 pm / Technical Notes, Video

  This is a great breakdown of seemingly arbitrary and highly variable frame rates we experience today. Until the incorporation of sound which arrived as a superbly egalitarian/standardizing factor into the film, the frame rates were rather floppy. This lecture by FilmmakerIQ is a part of the Technical Notes series by Nature Documentaries aiming to compile useful technical, theoretical and practical knowledge for documentary filmmakers. The compact episode introduces the historical transitions from hand-cranked cinematographic cameras into television and later to […]

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  The Properties of Camera Lenses – FilmmakerIQ (2015)

  March 24, 2016 at 11:08 pm / Technical Notes, Video

  The Technical Notes series of Nature Documentaries aims to compile useful technical, theoretical and practical knowledge for documentary filmmakers. In this lecture from the FilmmakerIQ you will be exposed to some basic properties of the camera lenses such as the focal length and the aperture. The episode is also a good segway into sensor technology which also gets covered in more detail in another episode. The episode gives a quick primer on focal length, field of view, diffraction theory and […]

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  Visitors of Jerusalem Thorn (Paliurus spina-christi)

  March 18, 2016 at 1:07 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  The Jerusalem Thorn (Paliurus spina-christi) is a native evergreen bush of the Mediterranean basin belonging to the Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). As you might have already guessed from its scientific name, this is the plant depicted as a torture device (the crown of thorns) on prophet Jesus Christ’s head. The genus Paliurus is quite recognizable by its orbicular-winged fruit. The fossil record for the genus is widespread in the Northern Hemisphere and goes back to the middle Eocene epoch (~34 million […]

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  Visitors of Starry Rosinweed – Silphium asteriscus (Asteraceae)

  March 11, 2016 at 2:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

  A brief record of the insect visitors on a starry rosinweed in less than half hour period during August 14th 2010 at the State Botanical Garden in Athens, GA. Visitors/pollinators included long-horned bee (Melissodes bimaculata), Juvenal’s duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis), Carder bee (Anthidium illustre), Fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus), Scoliid wasp (Scolia nobilitata), another long-horned bee belonging to genus Melissodes and Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis). In this short observation, the last visitor of the flower was a Silvery Checkerspot with rather beat […]

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  Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera” (1929)

  March 10, 2016 at 10:45 pm / Technical Notes, Video

  Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera” has shown the world the capabilities of the cinematographic camera. The silent movie was advised to be accompanied with a fast-moving musical score. Since its release the film has been rendered with many soundtracks. Man with a Movie Camera took 4 years to film. It documents the daily life of modern Soviet city life, spanning four cities — Kharkiv, Kiev, Moscow and Odessa. The manifesto at the beginning of the film heralds the […]

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  The Carnivorous Venus Flytrap Plants Can Count – Jennifer Böhm (2016)

  February 27, 2016 at 3:09 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

  Researchers at the University of Würzburg, in Germany have shown for the first time that carnivorous Venus flytrap plants (Dionaea muscipula) have the ability to track time between two stimuli 20 seconds apart precisely. This time keeping ability is a remarkable evolutionary adaptation that minimizes false signals that may lead to unnecessary trap closure. Nature is full of random unexpected events and Venus flytrap survival depends on a reliable trigger mechanism for its trap closure. A sensitive trap closing due […]

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  If a Tree Falls: The Mozambican Forest at Risk – Mike & Sam Goldwater (2010)

  February 25, 2016 at 10:42 am / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

  “If a Tree Falls: The Mozambican forest at risk” is a documentary film produced and directed by Mike and Sam Goldwater. The project was commissioned by IIED – the International Institute for Environment and Development exploring the validity and application of the United Nations Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries abbreviated as REDD. The documentary was shot in the Northern Mozambican province of Nampula. The film portrays an example for the tragedy of […]

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  BioBlitz!

  February 17, 2016 at 7:31 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  NEW! UConn BioBlitz June 3rd – 4th 2016 in Two Rivers Magnet School, Hartford CT. 2016 BioBlitz will possibly be the biggest ever organized thus far. You can have more information here. BioBlitz 2015 was a huge success held at UConn Campus on July 24th – 25th 2015. In May 2013, National Park Service/National Geographic organized a BioBlitz in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve near New Orleans, Louisiana. The video above is based on experiences of young participants. […]

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  Lord Howe Stick Insect (is not extinct!) / Sticky – Jilli Rose (2013)

  February 12, 2016 at 9:26 am / Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Evolutionarily speaking, extinction is like the massive hidden part of an iceberg. More than 99% of nature’s experiments have failed but the successful 1% that is remaining is stunning us as we continue to learn. Not all extinction is natural however. As we are more and more certain Anthropocene, Human caused extinction rate is becoming much higher than the natural background extinction rate. Scientists are rushing to assess the on going rate of the extinction in different parts of the […]

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  Carnivorous Pitcher Plant Catches Ants by Changing Slipperiness of Peristome – Ulrike Bauer (2015)

  January 23, 2016 at 9:38 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations

  Biologists have shown that a pitcher plant has a remarkable adaptation for varying the slipperiness of the rim of its trap (the peristome). In Borneo, the pitcher plant (Nepenthes rafflesiana) traps sporadically large group of ants from the same species. In experiments where the trapping surfaces were kept continuously wet the plants no longer captured large groups of ants. When scout ants find a pitcher trap full of sweet nectar, they return to the colony and recruit many more ant […]

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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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