Recent Videos

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  Landsat 9, part 4: Plays Well With Others – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2020)

  December 16, 2021 at 1:04 pm / Global Patterns, Video

  In this last episode of the four part mini series, we take a look at a few examples for how scientists are using the Landsat data to find answers to diverse questions. For instance biologists use imagery to quantify evaporative stress in plants and health of the trees. Landsat measurements can be combined with that of GRACE to interpret effects of underground water levels on the plant cover in a given area. Landsat data can integrate with data coming from […]

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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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  Synthetic Cells: Building Life to Understand It – Katarzyna Adamala | iBiology (2021)

  July 9, 2021 at 10:31 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

  Dr. Katarzyna Adamala of the University of Minnesota describes what synthetic cells are and how they can teach us the fundamental principles of life. By looking at the fundamental molecules of (RNA, DNA and Proteins) biologists are certain that life on Earth evolved only once. All biological systems (including viruses that are technically non-living) on our planet are rooted in the same fundamental framework. This framework appears extremely complex and we have yet to fully understand the processes inside living […]

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  The Science in Saving the Fowler’s Toad – Ryan Mariotti (2017)

  June 19, 2021 at 11:15 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Wildlife Documentaries

  Like many amphibians, Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) is facing myriad threats caused by Human activities. Filmed and directed by environmental filmmaker Ryan Mariotti this short documentary follows Canadian herpetologists Dr. David Green & Dr. Katherine Yagi from McGill University studying populations of this sand specialist frog on Lake Erie. Researchers identify the threats facing the Fowler’s Toad and how to save it. These threats include habitat alteration due to invasive Phragmites plants and demographic bottlenecks arising from low recruitment rates […]

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  A Scientific Visualization of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season – NASA/SVS (2020)

  April 16, 2021 at 10:28 pm / Global Patterns, Video

  NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) has released an animated summary of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. The visualization starts on May 1, 2020 showing Sea Surface Temperatures and cloud cover. Precipitation data layer enters in as hurricanes are tracked throughout 2020. Hurricane strengths pepresented with the letter “T” for Tropical Storm and numbers for each storm’s respective strength along the hurricane tracks. At the end by all storm tracks are projected together on the surface. The season stunned meteorologists and […]

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  Horseshoe Crabs Mating in Maine

  April 9, 2021 at 11:25 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  This is a quite rare footage of Atlantic horseshoe crabs (Limulus poyphemus) recorded during high tide about 10:00 am in Recompence Shore, Freeport Maine on May 26th 2010. Mating mostly happens in moonlit nights (romantic animals) on sandy beaches. Here they are mating in broad daylight on a rough pebble beach. External fertilization is one of the ancestral ways to produce offspring however it can be rather costly. Egg production requires more resources compared to sperm. Females therefore need more […]

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  Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam – Friends of Big Bear Valley (2021)

  March 4, 2021 at 2:28 pm / Natural history, Video, webcams

  An eagles’ nest cannot have a better view that this! The pair of unbanded eagles, Jackie and Shadow have mated and laid their eggs. They have been tending the eggs with beautifully coordinated shift changes. Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam is presented by the Friends of Big Bear Valley from Fawnskin, California. Here you can find their brief history. NatureDocumentaries.org follows a number of webcams and these charismatic birds of prey occupy a significant chunk. Thanks to continent-wide conservation efforts […]

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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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  Chasing Ghosts – bioGraphic / Eric Bendick (2019)

  February 25, 2021 at 9:11 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Orchids have a special place in plant biologists’ hearts. How can they not? They are the beetles (*) of the plant world. One in every five flowering plant species living today is an orchid. Although orchids are so diverse, they are also rather rare. Most people think of orchids as showy, vibrant and beautiful, but Gastrodia agnicellus, named in 2020 from a forest in Madagascar, is quite the opposite. The evolutionary alliance of orchids and their pollinators go as far […]

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  The Kingdom of the Lion Tailed Macaque – Poorna Kedar (2019)

  December 18, 2020 at 11:37 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

  Lion Tailed Macaques is an endangered primate endemic to the Western Ghats of India with a restricted geographical range. Due to habitat loss and human pressures populations have been on the decline. The filmmaker Poorna Kedar has recorded these vulnerable primates at one of the critical habitats of this species near the town of Valparai. India’s Western Ghats is an ecologically unique biodiversity hotspot recognized by the United Nations as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The exceptionally high level of […]

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  Visiting the most vulnerable place on Earth: the ‘doomsday glacier’ – PBS Newshour (2020)

  October 5, 2020 at 4:45 pm / Global Patterns, Nova Documentaries, PBS Nature

  For a little over more than 33 million years, the Antarctic continent remained an exceptionally isolated land mass due to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that forms a thermal shield around it. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on our planet flowing without obstruction from any other land masses. Unfortunately human induced global warming is changing all that and the effects of the climate change is being felt at both poles of the planet through a phenomenon known […]

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  Decoding COVID-19 – Sara Holt | NOVA / PBS (2020)

  August 17, 2020 at 8:46 pm / Nova Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

  Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been one of the most effective institutions in fight against emerging diseases. Yet, strikingly, the US has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elimination of the immensely important the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit — responsible for pandemic preparedness — established in 2015 is now deemed one of the biggest political mistakes of our time. Unfortunately political interference continued to render experts of this most cutting edge organization largely ineffective and left […]

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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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  A Window into the Twilight Zone – Jennifer L. Berglund / WHOI (2020)

  August 2, 2020 at 12:51 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Video

  The Ocean Twilight Zone is the largest habitat on Earth. It is a vast ecosystem that does not depend on sunlight directly. This is the place where organisms have evolved seemingly bizarre adaptations such as bioluminescence and reproduction modes such as the Angler Fish with a parasitic male. The clues for chemical origins for how life may have started could be there in thermal vents. The discovery of diel vertical migration of fish and zooplankton forming the deep sound scattering […]

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