Showing posts with label Life: Plants / Trees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life: Plants / Trees. Show all posts
Thursday, May 1, 2014
* The Magic of Mushrooms (2014)
Professor Richard Fortey delves into the fascinating and normally-hidden kingdom of fungi. From their spectacular birth, through their secretive underground life to their final explosive death, Richard reveals a remarkable world that few of us understand or even realise exists - yet all life on Earth depends on it. In a specially-built mushroom lab, with the help of mycologist Dr Patrick Hickey and some state-of-the-art technology, Richard brings to life the secret world of mushrooms as never seen before and reveals the spectacular abilities of fungi to break down waste and sustain new plant life, keeping our planet alive. Beyond the lab, Richard travels across Britain and beyond to show us the biggest, fastest and most deadly organisms on the planet - all of them fungi. He reveals their almost magical powers that have world-changing potential - opening up new frontiers in science, medicine and technology.
* Botany: A Blooming History (2011)
Series which tells the story of how people came to understand the natural order of the plant world, and how the quest to discover how plants grow uncovered the secret to life on the planet.
Part 1: A Confusion of Names
What makes plants grow is a simple enough question, but the answer turns out to be one of the most complicated and fascinating stories in science and took over 300 years to unravel. Timothy Walker, director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden, reveals how the breakthroughs of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Chelsea gardener Phillip Miller and English naturalist John Ray created the science of botany. Between them these quirky, temperamental characters unlocked the mysteries of the plant kingdom and they began to glimpse a world where bigger, better and stronger plants could be created. Nurseryman Thomas Fairchild created the world's first artificial hybrid flower - an entirely new plant that didn't exist in nature. Today, botanists continue the search for new flowers, better crops and improved medicines to treat life-threatening diseases.
Part 2: Photosynthesis
The air we breathe, and all the food we eat, is created from water, sunlight, carbon dioxide and a few minerals. It sounds simple, but this process is one of the most fascinating and complicated in all of science, and without it there could be no life on earth. For centuries people believed that plants grew by eating soil. In the 17th century, pioneer botanists began to make the connection between the growth of a plant and the energy from the sun. They discovered how plants use water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce sugars - how, in fact, a plant grows. The process of photosynthesis is still at the heart of scientific research today, with universities across the world working hard to replicate in the lab what plants do with ruthless efficiency. Their goal is to produce a clean, limitless fuel and if they get it right it will change all our lives.
Part 3: Hidden World
For 10,000 years or more, humans created new plant varieties for food by trial and error and a touch of serendipity. Then 150 years ago, a new era began. Pioneer botanists unlocked the patterns found in different types of plants and opened the door to a new branch of science - plant genetics. They discovered what controlled the random colours of snapdragon petals and the strange colours found in wild maize. This was vital information. Some botanists even gave their lives to protect their collection of seeds. American wheat farmer Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel peace prize after he bred a new strain of wheat that lifted millions of people around the world out of starvation. Today, botanists believe advances in plant genetics hold the key to feeding the world's growing population.
Part 1: A Confusion of Names
What makes plants grow is a simple enough question, but the answer turns out to be one of the most complicated and fascinating stories in science and took over 300 years to unravel. Timothy Walker, director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden, reveals how the breakthroughs of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Chelsea gardener Phillip Miller and English naturalist John Ray created the science of botany. Between them these quirky, temperamental characters unlocked the mysteries of the plant kingdom and they began to glimpse a world where bigger, better and stronger plants could be created. Nurseryman Thomas Fairchild created the world's first artificial hybrid flower - an entirely new plant that didn't exist in nature. Today, botanists continue the search for new flowers, better crops and improved medicines to treat life-threatening diseases.
Part 2: Photosynthesis
The air we breathe, and all the food we eat, is created from water, sunlight, carbon dioxide and a few minerals. It sounds simple, but this process is one of the most fascinating and complicated in all of science, and without it there could be no life on earth. For centuries people believed that plants grew by eating soil. In the 17th century, pioneer botanists began to make the connection between the growth of a plant and the energy from the sun. They discovered how plants use water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce sugars - how, in fact, a plant grows. The process of photosynthesis is still at the heart of scientific research today, with universities across the world working hard to replicate in the lab what plants do with ruthless efficiency. Their goal is to produce a clean, limitless fuel and if they get it right it will change all our lives.
Part 3: Hidden World
For 10,000 years or more, humans created new plant varieties for food by trial and error and a touch of serendipity. Then 150 years ago, a new era began. Pioneer botanists unlocked the patterns found in different types of plants and opened the door to a new branch of science - plant genetics. They discovered what controlled the random colours of snapdragon petals and the strange colours found in wild maize. This was vital information. Some botanists even gave their lives to protect their collection of seeds. American wheat farmer Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel peace prize after he bred a new strain of wheat that lifted millions of people around the world out of starvation. Today, botanists believe advances in plant genetics hold the key to feeding the world's growing population.
* Your Inner Fish (2014)
Your Inner Fish reveals a startling truth: Hidden within the human body is a story of life on Earth. This scientific adventure story takes viewers from Ethiopia to the Arctic Circle on a hunt for the many ways that our animal ancestors shaped our anatomical destiny. Come face-to-face with your "inner fish" in this completely new take on the human body: You'll never look at yourself in quite the same way again!
Your Inner Fish
Paleobiologist Neil Shubin uncovers the answers in this new look at human evolution. Using fossils, embryos and genes, he reveals how our bodies are the legacy of ancient fish, reptiles and primates.
Your Inner Reptile
"Your Inner Reptile" traces our hair, skin, teeth, jaws and sense of hearing back to reptilian ancestors — from ferocious beasts that ruled the Earth to a little shrew-like animal that lived 195 million years ago.
Your Inner Monkey
Your Inner Monkey" tracks our hands, feet, color vision, spine and upright gait to our primate and hominid progenitors, who also passed on perhaps the most important legacy of all: a path to the human brain.
Your Inner Fish
Paleobiologist Neil Shubin uncovers the answers in this new look at human evolution. Using fossils, embryos and genes, he reveals how our bodies are the legacy of ancient fish, reptiles and primates.
Your Inner Reptile
"Your Inner Reptile" traces our hair, skin, teeth, jaws and sense of hearing back to reptilian ancestors — from ferocious beasts that ruled the Earth to a little shrew-like animal that lived 195 million years ago.
Your Inner Monkey
Your Inner Monkey" tracks our hands, feet, color vision, spine and upright gait to our primate and hominid progenitors, who also passed on perhaps the most important legacy of all: a path to the human brain.
* Redesign My Brain (2013)
See Australian television personality Todd Sampson put brain training to the test as he undergoes a radical brain makeover in a three-part documentary series on the revolutionary new science of brain plasticity. The cutting edge science has found that anyone can become smarter, improve their memory and reverse mental ageing with the right brain training. It can turn an ordinary brain into a super brain in just three months. The fastest growing science on the planet, brain plasticity will revolutionize how we live in the future. It has the potential to cure learning and mental disorders, such as OCD, bipolar disorder, addiction, ADD, autism and some dementias. And its rapid results deliver benefits regardless of age. But how can it improve the lives of ordinary people?
This is a 3 part series.
This is a 3 part series.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
* Guts (2012)
What's really going on inside your stomach? In this documentary, Michael Mosley offers up his own guts to find out. Spending the day as an exhibit at the Science Museum in London, he swallows a tiny camera and uses the latest in imaging technology to get a unique view of his innards digesting his food. He discovers pools of concentrated acid and metres of writhing tubing which is home to its own ecosystem. Michael lays bare the mysteries of the digestive system - and reveals a complexity and intelligence in the human gut that science is only just beginning to uncover.
* Elsewhere (2001)
Austrian documentary filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Our Daily Bread) marked the turn of the century with this year-long project visiting rural communities in the most remote places across the globe. Mounting the epic filmic trek in the year 2000, Geyrhalter's team sought to find people who were untouched by the millennium hysteria of the day. Time seems to stand still in some of the places they visit but their film is in no way a portrait of primitive cultures. Elsewhere is a testament to the human spirit and an ennobling witnessing of the salt-of-the-earth people we never hear about.
* Dogging Tales (2013)
This intimate and compelling True Stories film provides an insight into why men and women engage in or watch sexual activity in front of strangers in public areas, under the cover of darkness.
Interviews with doggers begin in the 'real world' as their day draws to a close and they discuss their normal lives.
As they go out they shed their daytime personas and Maguire accompanies them to lay-bys, woods and picnic spots around the UK that often double as dogging locations after dusk.
The characters allow themselves to be filmed during their sexual encounters but they also open up about their attraction to dogging: how they were introduced to it; why they may feel a lack of fulfilment without it; and how their relationships are enhanced or damaged by it.
The film is not just about sex or fetishistic behaviour, but also the human story of alter-egos, connections and acceptance.
This beautifully shot, distinctive film captures the intimate night-time journeys that few people see or experience, but that allow this covert community precious escapism, excitement and self-discovery.
Dogging Tales is directed by award-winning photographer Leo Maguire, who made his critically-acclaimed debut in 2012 with Gypsy Blood: True Stories.
Interviews with doggers begin in the 'real world' as their day draws to a close and they discuss their normal lives.
As they go out they shed their daytime personas and Maguire accompanies them to lay-bys, woods and picnic spots around the UK that often double as dogging locations after dusk.
The characters allow themselves to be filmed during their sexual encounters but they also open up about their attraction to dogging: how they were introduced to it; why they may feel a lack of fulfilment without it; and how their relationships are enhanced or damaged by it.
The film is not just about sex or fetishistic behaviour, but also the human story of alter-egos, connections and acceptance.
This beautifully shot, distinctive film captures the intimate night-time journeys that few people see or experience, but that allow this covert community precious escapism, excitement and self-discovery.
Dogging Tales is directed by award-winning photographer Leo Maguire, who made his critically-acclaimed debut in 2012 with Gypsy Blood: True Stories.
* Do You See What I See? (2011)
Roses are red, violets are blue but according to the latest understanding these colours are really an illusion. One that you create yourself. Horizon reveals a surprising truth about how we all see the world. You may think a rose is red, the sky is blue and the grass is green, but it now seems that the colours you see may not always be the same as the colours I see. Your age, sex and even mood can affect how you experience colours. Scientists have unlocked the hidden power that colours can have over your life - how red can make you a winner, how blue makes time speed up, and more.
* Can We Live Forever? (2011)
NOVA poses the question - Can we live forever? - and host Neil deGrasse Tyson tackles one of science's major challenges in each episode. He will guide us as he explores dramatic discoveries and the frontiers of research that connect each central, provocative mystery.
* Bees, Butterflies and Blooms (2012)
Sarah Raven is on a mission to halt the decline in honey bees and insect pollinators with insect friendly flower power.
Part 1: Villages, Farms and Countryside
Sarah takes her mission out into the Great British countryside to encourage farmers and village communities to help recreate a network of crucial habitats for these insects. She meets the Farringtons - a Northamptonshire farming family. They investigate sowing perennial wildflower borders around their crops to increase habitats for insect pollinators and to possibly increase crop yields. She also attempts to change the attitude of a Northamptonshire village that prefers tidiness over wildflowers and, at home, she harvests some wildflower seed in order to develop her own wildflower meadow, something everyone can do in their own community or at home.
Part 2: Towns, Gardens and Britain in Bloom
Sarah challenges the RHS Britain in Bloom competition to make their floral displays more nectar and pollen-rich, to help to increase the amount of food and habitat for pollinating insects throughout the spring and summer months. Sarah also challenges the UK gardening industry, the Horticultural Trades Association and the Royal Horticultural Society to champion pollinating insects by launching a 'pollinator-friendly' logo at the Chelsea Flower Show. The logo and label would enable gardeners to identify the best plants for bees and butterflies throughout garden centres and nurseries in the UK. And at home, Sarah meets expert garden naturalist Steve Head, and explores her own garden's suitability for insect pollinators. Inspired by what she discovers, she develops a nectar garden - a mini oasis for insect pollinators.
Part 3: Cities
Sarah challenges our city parks departments to sow nectar rich modern meadows, and to make their floral displays more nectar and pollen rich to help to increase the amount of food and habitat for pollinating insects throughout the spring and summer months. Sarah starts her campaign in Birmingham. She challenges the parks department to get rid of Victorian bedding displays. Next, she visits the London Olympic Park where tens of thousands of square metres of modern pollinator friendly meadows are being sown to come into glorious flower for the games in August 2012. Sarah gets an exclusive preview of the ground breaking biodiverse and pollinator friendly landscaping. Finally, Sarah tests whether modern meadow seed mixes can pack a floral punch and supply our pollinators with a flow of pollen and nectar throughout the year.
Part 1: Villages, Farms and Countryside
Sarah takes her mission out into the Great British countryside to encourage farmers and village communities to help recreate a network of crucial habitats for these insects. She meets the Farringtons - a Northamptonshire farming family. They investigate sowing perennial wildflower borders around their crops to increase habitats for insect pollinators and to possibly increase crop yields. She also attempts to change the attitude of a Northamptonshire village that prefers tidiness over wildflowers and, at home, she harvests some wildflower seed in order to develop her own wildflower meadow, something everyone can do in their own community or at home.
Part 2: Towns, Gardens and Britain in Bloom
Sarah challenges the RHS Britain in Bloom competition to make their floral displays more nectar and pollen-rich, to help to increase the amount of food and habitat for pollinating insects throughout the spring and summer months. Sarah also challenges the UK gardening industry, the Horticultural Trades Association and the Royal Horticultural Society to champion pollinating insects by launching a 'pollinator-friendly' logo at the Chelsea Flower Show. The logo and label would enable gardeners to identify the best plants for bees and butterflies throughout garden centres and nurseries in the UK. And at home, Sarah meets expert garden naturalist Steve Head, and explores her own garden's suitability for insect pollinators. Inspired by what she discovers, she develops a nectar garden - a mini oasis for insect pollinators.
Part 3: Cities
Sarah challenges our city parks departments to sow nectar rich modern meadows, and to make their floral displays more nectar and pollen rich to help to increase the amount of food and habitat for pollinating insects throughout the spring and summer months. Sarah starts her campaign in Birmingham. She challenges the parks department to get rid of Victorian bedding displays. Next, she visits the London Olympic Park where tens of thousands of square metres of modern pollinator friendly meadows are being sown to come into glorious flower for the games in August 2012. Sarah gets an exclusive preview of the ground breaking biodiverse and pollinator friendly landscaping. Finally, Sarah tests whether modern meadow seed mixes can pack a floral punch and supply our pollinators with a flow of pollen and nectar throughout the year.
* Are You Good or Evil? (2011)
This programme features researchers who have studied some of the most terrifying people behind bars - psychopathic killers - to determine what makes us good or evil. There was a shock in store for one of these scientists, Professor Jim Fallon, when he discovered that he had the profile of a psychopath. And the reason he didn't turn out to be a killer holds important lessons for all of us. We also meet the scientist who believes he has found the moral molecule and the man who is using this new understanding to rewrite our ideas of crime and punishment.
* Are We Still Evolving? (2011)
Alice Roberts investigates whether, thanks to advances in technology and medicine, mankind has managed to break free from the process of evolution. Following a trail of clues from ancient human remains, she examines the physiology of people living in some of the most inhospitable parts of the planet, and challenges the frontiers of genetic research by speculating on what the future has in store for homo sapiens.
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