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ATP Synthase in Action – HarvardX / BioVisions

April 27, 2020 at 3:09 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

ATP is a universal energy storing molecule in biological systems. How does life generate ATP from ADP? Similarly, how does life consume it on an industrial scale in membrane bound systems such as mitochondria and chloroplasts? ATP synthase (or ATPase depending on which catalytic direction you look at it) enzyme is a hugely interesting molecular structure. Yes it most certainly is a bi-directional turbine. It is one of the few rotatory molecular structures life has evolved such as the flagella […]

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Electron Transport Chain – HarvardX / BioVisions (2013)

April 27, 2020 at 9:14 am / Evolution, Molecular Nature

Understanding molecular nature of life is not easy without informative scientific visualizations. Distillation of this rich body of information generated over decades or even century long research into a visual medium can be key to grasp complexities of subcellular structures. Take the Central Dogma of biology for instance. The Central Dogma animation distills more than half a century of intense laboratory research that started with Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling’s extraordinarily historic X-ray diffraction photograph in 1952. Photo 51 was […]

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Eye of the Pangolin – Pangolin.Africa (2019)

April 2, 2020 at 11:21 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The etymological origin of the name pangolin comes from the Malay word pengguling. It means “one who rolls up”. The animal has at least eight species with a wide geographical distribution ranging from Africa to Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia including Malayan Archipelago and Indonesia. Unfortunately we know very little about this highly elusive animal and its existence is under threat. Scaly anteaters are quite unusual among mammals since their skin is covered by large and overlapping keratinized scales hugely […]

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How Coronaviruses Get into Cells – Tom Goddard (2020) / ChimeraX

February 20, 2020 at 11:45 am / Molecular Nature, Video

Tom Goddard is the developer of a fantastically successful free molecular visualization program ChimeraX in the University of California at San Francisco with support from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Here in this augmented reality projection, he explains how coronaviruses manage to enter cells of the host and take over the machinery which spark a viral infection. He takes a peek at the HIV packing structure and delves into […]

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Mitochondria: The Cell’s Powerhouse – HarvardX / BioVisions (2010)

February 19, 2020 at 8:48 pm / Molecular Nature

Mitochondria is one of the defining features of eukaryotic cells. It is a key innovation in life’s evolution. Here in this video by BioVisions, HarvardX outlines this organelle’s fascinating biology with informative visualizations that help grasp its molecular nature. However, before you continue, you might be interested in a visualization by XVIVO as a great primer to this video for cytological reasons. XVIVO has teamed up with Google to create a stunning 3-D immersive visualization of subcellular compartments inside a […]

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Gear CDC’s Disease Detectives Use – Wired Magazine (2018)

January 28, 2020 at 10:00 pm / Human Nature, Video

Disease and pandemics are scary. As the world is shaking with the news of a new corona virus outbreak in China it is informative to take a look into gear used by “the disease detectives” ie. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The movie Contagion (2011) has done a great job for educating public by depicting a rather probable scenario of a viral outbreak largely based on the SARS outbreak of 2003. The hugely successful BBC documentary The Hidden Life […]

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Snakes in a Cave – Nate Dappen & Neil Losin (2014)

January 24, 2020 at 8:36 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

As the world is shaking with the news of a new corona virus outbreak in China, researchers have quickly identified the potential source of 2019-nCoV based on the spike forming glycoprotein structure. Just like the hugely informative movie Contagion (2011) depicting a realistic scenario this new virus was a bizarre sounding recombinant. The corona virus SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be a recombinant of a bat and a snake virus. At first, you may naturally ask how could this weird merger have […]

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ORBIT – Seán Doran (2018)

December 23, 2019 at 8:33 pm / Global Patterns

ORBIT compiled by Seán Doran is a wonderfully poetic “out of the world” representation of global patterns based on observations from the International Space Station. The film leverages NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth program. NatureDocumentaries.org always endorses the motto “Science can be beautiful and art can be informative”. The International Space Station experiences on average 16 sunrises in a typical 24 hour period. It circles the Earth in between 92-93 minutes. You can learn more about the travel […]

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In Nomine Terra Calens: In the Name of a Warming Earth – Lucy Jones (2019)

October 9, 2019 at 2:33 pm / Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

Science can be beautiful. Art can be informative. The urgency of climate change is a pressing issue of our time. Scientists have done their job superbly demonstrating causes for why and how our planet is warming due to Human activities. They have done it by making long term measurements of atmospheric CO2 levels and deep drilling of polar ice cores. The scientific facts are all very clear indicating excessive fossil fuel use must end. However the message is clearly not […]

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The Making of Silent Running (1972) – Douglas Trumbull

October 1, 2019 at 5:30 pm / Human Nature, Technical Notes, Video

Silent Running is a landmark 1972 film directed by Douglas Trumbull. Over the years, it became a cult sci-fi classic and is seen as one of the most pivotal philosophical movies for environmental movement. Recall that Greenpeace was started in 1971 and the spirit of the times was chiming with anti-nuclear sentiment. Obliteration of humankind was indeed an apocalyptic possibility under Cold War. Rachel Carson’s hugely influential 1962 book Silent Spring which showed the global impact of the pesticide DDT […]

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Film Grammar – Khan Academy (2017)

September 28, 2019 at 9:22 am / Human Nature, Technical Notes, Video

This collaboration between Khan Academy and Pixar is a wonderful demonstration of building tool kits for self learning. Psychologists argue that an important cognitive function known as working memory is what made us into modern humans. As the highly inspirational illustrator Beatrix Potter put it, one cannot truly study anything without drawing it. Drawing is an effective working memory exercise that helps reinforce information by converting a short term memory into a long term one. That could be one reason […]

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The Queen of Trees – PBS (2006)

September 27, 2019 at 10:22 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, PBS Nature, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Queen of Trees is now viewable on the official YouTube Channel of Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble. Veteran wildlife filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble once again put out a marvelous work by compiling observations on a community centered around a sycamore fig tree. The success of the documentary comes from their long-term observations in a particular filming spot in Kenya where they camped on location for more than two years. A thorough understanding of the landscape with it’s inhabitants […]

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Protein Degradation through Ubiquitination – Oxford University Press (2014)

September 26, 2019 at 2:08 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

What happens when a protein is “done” and must be taken care of? The companion animation to the Oxford University Press text book Molecular Biology- Principles of Genome Function, encapsulates the basics of ubiquitination through E1>E2>E3 cascade and the molecular components involved. Ubiquitin is a small protein that can be covalently linked to lysine residues of proteins targeted for degradation by proteosomes inside the cell. E1 activating enzyme E2 conjugating enzyme E3 ligase complex The combinatorial diversity of E3 complexes […]

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MOSAiC Expedition: An Arctic Odyssey of Climate Scientists

September 25, 2019 at 5:14 pm / Global Patterns, Video

Since Captain Cook’s time (the collier bark Endeavor was the first scientific research vessel in history) ship expeditions have been extremely influential to understand our world. In an age of anthropogenic climate change the Arctic has remained the most understudied component of the global circulation system. Human induced global warming is exerting its effects on both poles of the planet. Now the time has come and the international Arctic drift expedition known as MOSAiC Expedition (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the […]

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When Plants Fight Back – bioGraphic (2017)

September 25, 2019 at 12:50 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Even Aristotle got it wrong. He thought plant roots convert soil into wood and grow that way. Plants resemble bizarre upside down animals. Their superior mouth parts (roots) are located in an inferior position. According to Aristotle, plants are ‘lower’ level living things. They are the first basic steps in procession of life from the inanimate to the animate (animals). Plants don’t move and are without ‘sensory soul’ but still have ‘souls’. Plants do not have any excrement, do not […]

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