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Antifreeze Proteins in Virtual Reality – Nanome (2022)

March 12, 2022 at 2:04 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Dr. Mike Kuiper, a biomodeler at CSIRO’s Data61 explains how antifreeze proteins work in a metaverse compatible virtual reality environment enabled by Nanome. These ice structuring proteins, is a basis of survival for organisms evolved to live in very cold environments with temperatures below the freezing point of water. Essentially, these proteins can bind to the surface of ice crystals and create a surface effect leading to freezing-point depression. Bacteria, insects, fishes and many more organisms from different evolutionary backgrounds […]

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A Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

July 7, 2020 at 4:41 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

It appears like nothing too exciting is going on in this short observation but in reality there’s a lot happening inside that brain of this bird perfectly chilling with the self confidence of a top predator. The confidence is well earned: they are the descendants of dinosaurs. Looking and seeing are two separate actions. In order to “see” a higher order brain function called “attention” is needed. Scientists define the foundation of attention with two concepts called Context Generalization and […]

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Whack! Jab! Crack! It’s a Blackback Land Crab Smackdown – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2019)

August 23, 2019 at 9:50 pm / Natural history, PBS Nature, Short Observations, Video

DEEP LOOK is an award-winning PBS program produced by KQED. Here’s another cool story from season 5 Episode 13. Shred a sponge into thousands of pieces but the cells can still rearrange and organize themselves in a surprisingly rapid manner. Here we are shown a snapshot of another example of limb regeneration from the crustacean blackback land crab (Gecarcinus ruricola) native to the Caribbean. Human tissue and organ regeneration is a curious goal for medicine. However in order to achieve […]

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Wallace in Borneo – Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero – BBC (2013)

June 27, 2019 at 2:35 pm / BBC documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

The theory of evolution was co-discovered independently by two biologists that lived within the same time period. Darwin and Wallace were well known in their time but Wallace’s name gradually has been overshadowed by Darwin. Today we rarely (almost never) hear the name Alfred Russell Wallace. In the past there have been a few documentaries making a rare attempt to focus on the biography of this very influential biologist including an episode in Jacob Bronowski’s 1973 The Ascent of Man […]

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An Interactive Exhibit – “The Legacy of a Lifetime of Collecting: The Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer Story”

May 4, 2019 at 10:53 am / Natural history, Video

The interactive exhibit “The Legacy of a Lifetime of Collecting: The Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer Story,” was inspired by a fascinating collection of army ants and their hundreds of closely associated organisms, or “guests.” The specimens collected over the course of 50 years of fieldwork in South and Central America by the late Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer. Filmed entirely on location at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica Rettenmeyers produced a two part documentary series on this ecologically […]

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An Annotated Animation of Zebrafish Embryo Development – Edwin Mutuma Murungi (2017)

March 3, 2019 at 7:37 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Evolutionarily speaking all of us are tetrapods and contain a fish inside! Take the retention of embryonic gill arches for example, still observed in quite a few people. Preaurucular pit is the scientific term for this ancestral structure. Its presence in Humans reflects the “evo-devo” aspect of our shared biological heritage with all vertebrates living on earth. Here, animated by Edwin Mutuma Murungi, the annotated animation of zebrafish embryo development produced by Norwegian University of Life Sciences – NMBU Learning […]

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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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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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Gray Triggerfish Nesting Behavior – Mert Gökalp | AQUADIARIES (2018)

July 31, 2018 at 6:05 am / Natural history, Short Observations

The evolutionary origins of nest building behavior in vertebrates are deep rooted and go all the way back to the fish. The behavior can be very complex with stunning results such as that of the Japanese puffer fish. Here in this short observation an underwater cameraman and filmmaker Mert Gökalp captures a few distinct scenes from the Gray Triggerfish nesting behavior in the Eastern Mediterranean town of Kaş. This fish colonized the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar and reached the farthest […]

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The Ecology of Fear – KQED/QUEST (2014)

May 28, 2018 at 5:32 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The return of wolves had a profound impact on vast wilderness areas in North America. Biologist Aaron Wirsing explores why wolves and other top predators are necessary for maintenance of diversity in ecosystems. Using a “deer-cam” Wirsing is quantifying some of the behavioral relationships between predator and prey. Wildlife cameras provide unprecedented opportunities to view social lives of many wild animals including mountain lions. The gray wolf is one of the world’s most adaptable and widely distributed mammals, ranging over […]

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Hungry Polar Bear Ambushes Seal | The Hunt | BBC Earth (2017)

March 9, 2018 at 10:55 am / BBC documentaries, Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Short Observations, Video

Being a predator is very difficult. The “one in twenty” success rate is almost a universal rule of thumb to describe predator hunting efficiency. Prey defines the terms of engagement. Predator has to play catch up and therefore has to be stronger, faster more agile and perhaps more clever in planning a successful attack. We know this relationship from studies that have exquisitely measured predator-prey related physical parameters in Cheetahs and Lions hunting Impalas and Zebras. Connections between apex predators […]

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Humpback Whales Bubble Fishing – BBC Earth (2015)

January 15, 2018 at 4:38 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video

Cetaceans are the largest animals on our planet. Whales could evolve into such enormous sizes only very recently through the geological time. This became possible due to pulses of nutrients coming from a cycle of glaciations fertilizing the seas for plankton growth. Feeding efficiency is a prerequisite for gigantism to evolve. Truly gigantic animals have always been close to the base of trophic levels and have found a way to maximize feeding on a rich food resource. Sauropod dinosaurs for […]

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The Tiniest Fossils – Shelf Life/AMNH (2017)

January 3, 2018 at 9:20 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

Foraminiferans or “forams” are extremely fast responding single-celled shelled organisms to climatic changes. They can be extremely small for one could easily mistake foraminifera fossils for flecks of dust. Over thousands and millions of years these tiny specimens adjusted their shapes based on Earth’s climatic fluctuations. Here in this AMNH production scientific assistant Bushra Hussaini, researcher Ellen Thomas, curator Neil Landman, and intern Shaun Mahmood show how they are preserving this invaluable collection. Forams initially were mistaken for another kind […]

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Development of a Salamander Embryo – Yale University Department of Anatomy (1920s)

November 10, 2017 at 4:08 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Technical Notes, 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 are known to be able to regenerate limbs while frogs and lizards cannot. How and why? The time lapsed footage of salamander embryos developing from single fertilized eggs forms the basis of our morphological understanding of animal development. The footage recorded by Yale University researchers […]

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Cameras Reveal the Secret Lives of a Mountain Lion Family – Sharon Negri (2013)

May 29, 2017 at 10:01 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Mountain lions were once thought to be solitary animals. They are feared and hunted by humans. New footage captured by motion-triggered cameras in secluded areas deep in the Wyoming Wind River range shows a mountain lion family and the animals’ previously unknown social bonds. In this short documentary produced by WildFutures, we also learn about how hard it can be to be a mountain lion. They face an increasing loss of habitat, harsh winters, trophy hunters and even predators. Like […]

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