Search
Type
Format
Sort
Location
Audience

Summary: Assume, for the sake of argument, that our species has created everything it needs-all the comfort and protection that technology can provide. Does that mean our biological evolution has come to an end? Not necessarily, says anatomist and anthropologist Alice Roberts. In fact, technology may be driving human evolution, and at breakneck speed. Dr. Roberts meets scientists who are detecting and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

View online at AVOD

Summary: Likening the beauty and complexity of DNA to an epic poem, this program revolves around the idea that we all carry the story of life on Earth in our genes, and that the similarities between species may play a more significant role in that story than previously thought. A visit to Iceland's hot springs reveals heat-, acid-, and salt-resistant organisms called Archaea-primordial versions of which...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

View online at AVOD

Summary: Imagine a future in which physical strength and assertiveness are the top-selling items on "baby menus." This program explores that possibility and other frightening implications of market-driven genetic engineering. Showing how the government-funded Human Genome Project has become highly lucrative for pharmaceutical companies, the video examines cases of exploitative gene harvesting in Iceland...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

View online at AVOD

Summary: The technology of cloning has raised a host of moral, ethical, and religious questions, and this program examines many of them. The "dangers" of cloning, from shrinking gene pools, to the development of a "super race," to fears that cloned DNA could introduce genetic flaws into the population, are examined. A theologian discusses how cloning changes our notion of soul. Harold Shapiro, chairman...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

View online at AVOD

Summary: This program provides an explanation of how the twin techniques of gene splicing and cloning are helping to unravel the secrets of variation. Genetic engineering is altering the branching pattern of natural evolution-which proceeds by mutations within a species and sexual recombination within that species-into a network, in which genes are moved within the laboratory from any species to any...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007

View online at AVOD

Summary: All other life forms except humans exist to propagate themselves and pass on their genes; humans alone work to other ends. In this lecture, Richard Dawkins distinguishes between the result of eons of natural selection which has resulted in, say, a bird's tail, whose purpose is to enable the bird to fly-purpose with a survival value-and deliberate design, like an airplane's tail. Dawkins shows...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

View online at AVOD

Summary: Mapping the human genome was only the first step in the process of decoding our DNA-and that process is far from over. This film follows the work of genetic researchers as they press forward, slowly but surely, in the task of interpreting and understanding life's greatest enigma. Highlighting the surprising finding that the human genome contains only about 32,000 genes (pre-map predictions were...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

View online at AVOD

Summary: This program analyzes the contributions of Mendel and Darwin, the transmission of single- and multiple-gene disorders, and genetic mutation. Following a description of Mendel's landmark pea-breeding experiments, the principles of heredity are applied to the spread of congenital conditions such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, myotonic dystrophy, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The second half...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

Summary: How does cDNA differ from normal DNA? Can a bullet really implant genes? And why is a gene for bioluminescence so valuable to researchers? This program answers those and other questions as it introduces the process of genetic engineering. Dr. David Cove deftly explains how reverse transcriptase is used to isolate genes, how isolated genes are cloned, how cloned genes are delivered via benign...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

Summary: What does genetic diversity mean, and what is its relationship to evolution? This video answers that intriguing question as it summarizes the theory of natural selection and describes the process of trait inheritance. Advances stemming from the Human Genome Project-an ever-deepening understanding of life on Earth, improvements in disease detection and treatment, and applications of genomics to...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

View online at AVOD

Summary: When you look at a family photo, the resemblances, even across several generations, can be striking. What role do genes play, and why aren't siblings identical (and why are some)? This program explains how the formation of sex cells, from the first gamete to chromosome pairs, determines our genetic makeup. Deviations such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, achondroplasia, Klinefelter...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

Summary: It was a businessman, not a trained scientist, who first gained entry to the cryptic world of cells. This program relates the early history of microbiology and genetics, beginning with the story of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a 17th-century Dutch textile merchant with a talent for making microscopes. Moving from van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of "animalcules" to Robert Hooke's cork studies and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

View online at AVOD

Summary: Recent findings in the fossil record have, in some scientific quarters, led to radical ideas on evolution. This program presents an intriguing and highly controversial theory: that human development has been-and continues to be-guided by genetic forces within us, rather than by the pressures of our environment. Following the work of paleontologist Anne Dambricourt Malasse and orthodontist...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009

View online at AVOD

Summary: An extraterrestrial biologist would probably not hesitate to classify Homo sapiens as just another chimpanzee. After all, the two species share 98 percent of their DNA-and yet what a difference that two percent makes. This program investigates how such similar primates became so very dissimilar.and how humans, having reached the point where they are little hindered by natural selection, are...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

Summary: Twenty years after the discovery of DNA's structure, another revolution swept biology when scientists began learning how to manipulate genes outright. The controversy continues. This program tells the story of genetic engineering's pioneers, focusing on the race to synthesize insulin and the development of genetically modified crops. Spectacular computer animations of molecular processes are...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

View online at AVOD

Summary: This program shows the process of sedimentation, which has preserved those life forms extant at the time the rock was formed and-most strikingly where the Colorado River has cut through the Grand Canyon-exposes a veritable history of life on earth; presents the stratified evidence that simple organisms populated the earth first, followed by increasingly complex forms; demonstrates modern...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

View online at AVOD

Summary: 1.Lab of the Future: Sequencing the human genome has transformed biology, turning it into an information science in which computing power is the key tool. This segment shows how the new computer-driven genetics has begun to unlock the secret of life. 2.Array of Life: It took scientists decades to learn how to sequence the human genome. Now it is being done every day in labs across the...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

View online at AVOD

Summary: Shedding light on today's biotech revolution, this intro-level program examines the controversies surrounding genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, specifically in agriculture. The program explains the process of modification using crown gall disease and Agrobacterium tumefaciens as models to demonstrate how genetic engineering works in plants. Marker genes, DNA constructs, promoters,...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

Summary: Technology has poisoned our planet and biotechnology may be the way to save it. This program shows how biotechnology is finding, altering, and growing answers to chemical pollution-how PCB-eating organisms are designed, tested, and produced and how frost-resistant plant strains are produced. It also examines the dangers of introducing nonnatural substances into our ecosystems, when we are...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

View online at AVOD

Summary: In this TEDTalk, geneticist Svante Paabo offers biological proof that early humans mated with Neanderthals after migrating out of Africa. Paabo also provides an overview of mutations and genetic variance, giving audiences a clear picture of the types of early hominids that lived in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East 100,000 years ago. Paabo explores human genetic evolution by analyzing DNA...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

View online at AVOD

Summary: Researchers have found a genetic mutation that doubles the lifespan of roundworms; what may be even more important is that the elderly worms have as much vigor and reproductive potency as when they were younger, and are more resistant to age-related disease than are normally-aging worms. In this TEDTalk biochemist Cynthia Kenyon explains how the daf-2 mutation works to increase longevity in...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

View online at AVOD

Summary: This program brings together six icons of intellect-mathematician John Nash, mathematical biologist Martin Nowak, mathematician Enrico Bombieri, mathematical physicist Freeman Dyson, cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz, and pianist Robert Taub-who talk about milestones on their roads to success. In the process, they range far and wide, covering topics such as game theory, the evolution and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

Summary: This Explorer program investigates a provocative theory which suggests that all forms of life-including humans-are descended from viruses. Respected virologist Dr. Luis Villarreal explains his virus-centric conception of the world, guiding viewers from the heart of Africa to urban Atlanta to southern Texas as he reveals the cryptic nature of some of the most bizarre and dangerous microbes known...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

View online at AVOD

Summary: PGD, or pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, allows doctors and parents to screen brand-new embryos for genetic diseases. This program illustrates the PGD process and what it implies-from lifesaving medical solutions to what many see as the Nazi-esque disposal of life. The experiences of couples considering or undergoing PGD are featured-including the story of Leanne and Stephen, who ignited...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

View online at AVOD

chat loading...
Back to Top