Carnivorous Plants of Cartwheel Bay

In this video segment from NatureScene, explore Cartwheel Bay, a wetland in South Carolina, and learn about the variety of carnivorous plants native to this unique landform.

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Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life

This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets.

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Chimp Politics

In this video from the PBS series The Human Spark, host Alan Alda and scientist Franz de Waal observe and compare two alpha-male chimpanzees’ different approaches to sharing at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.

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Climate and Human Evolution

In this video segment adapted from NOVA: "Becoming Human," learn how the analysis of rock layers and ocean sediments supports the theory that rapid climate change may have jump-started human evolution two million years ago.

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Comets Bombard the Early Earth

Visualize how comets carrying chemicals necessary for life could have made their way to Earth billions of years ago in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

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Comets Deliver Amino Acids to Earth

Amino acids, essential ingredients for life, may have been delivered to Earth by comets billions of years ago, as visualized in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

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The Common Genetic Code

Paul Nurse describes his research that showed that humans share some genes with organisms as different from us as simple brewer's yeast. Footage from Secret of Life: "Immortal Thread."

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A Day in the Life of a Neanderthal

In this video segment from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda looks at some of the similarities and differences between the Neanderthal way of life and that of modern humans.

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Decision-Maker Bees and the Human Brain

Learn about the similarity between the pattern of communication within a bee colony and neural networks in the human brain, in this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW.

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The Developing Brain

This video from The Human Spark illustrates the difference between the brain growth of man’s early ancestors and today’s modern infant.

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Dinosaurs

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K shows us what paleontologists think dinosaurs looked like, what they ate, and why they might have disappeared. We see paleontologists at work studying dinosaurs fossils.

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Dragonflies in Kentucky

This KET video segment from Kentucky Life explains the differences between dragonflies and damselflies and explores their habitats.

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Engineering Biofuels

In this video segment adapted from KQED's QUEST, find out how synthetic biologists use the techniques of metabolic engineering and directed evolution to make more effective biofuels.

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Evolutionary Roots of Language

This video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW looks at how language and tool-making may have coevolved.

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The Falls of the Ohio

This video from KET examines one of the largest exposed fossil beds in the world, found at the Falls of the Ohio River, near Louisville, Kentucky.

Floral Arrangements

Explore a few of the ways plants pollinate each other in this video segment from Sexual Encounters of a Floral Kind.

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Fossils

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K explains how fossils are formed, discusses the Hagerman Horse fossil found in Idaho. It describes the tools Paleontologists use and why they study fossils.

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Frozen Frogs

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW shows how the common wood frog freezes solid every winter, an adaptation that allows the organism to survive the cold winter.

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Genetically Engineering the Avian Flu

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about a radical biotechnology experiment aimed at figuring out how to stop the avian flu virus.

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Geneticist Pardis Sabeti

In this video profile adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about geneticist and rock musician Pardis Sabeti, whose innovative insights into natural selection demonstrated how beneficial mutations spread quickly through a population.

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Homo Sapiens Versus Neanderthals

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, explores reasons why Homo sapiens had an advantage over Neanderthals in the pursuit of territory and natural resources.

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Human Chromosome 2

In this video segment adapted from NOVA: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," learn how modern genetics and molecular biology offer compelling support for evolution. The video features an interview with biologist Ken Miller.

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Human Nature

This video segment from The Human Spark looks at the ways in which monkeys and apes are similar to humans, not just biologically but mentally and socially.

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If It Ain't Broke

Archaeologist John Shea explains the context and construction of one of the early humans' first tools--the stone hand ax.

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Ingredients for Life: Carbon

This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.

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Insight and Imagination

Get an overview of how insight and imagination distinguish humans from others in this segment from The Human Spark.

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Investigating Neanderthals

This video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW looks at how head shapes of Neanderthals and modern humans differ.

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Killer Microbe

Learn how biotechnology is used to analyze the evolution of a formerly harmless bacterium into a highly drug-resistant and lethal pathogen in this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW.

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The Language Spark

This excerpt from the PBS series The Human Spark explores the human brain’s unique capacity for language.

Leafy Spurge

This video segment from Evolution: "Extinction!" shows how biological control is successfully combating North Dakota's infestation of leafy spurge, a non-native plant.

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Links in the Evolutionary Chain

In this segment, Alan Alda, host of The Human Spark, explores some of the characteristics that distinguish different branches of the hominid “family tree,” such as brain and face size, ability to make tools, and location..

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The Living Fossil

In this video from Nature, learn about the horseshoe crab, a creature that has survived for 350 million years.

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Mass Extinction

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about a chain of events, including ancient volcanoes, global warming, and deadly gases, which may have caused Earth's greatest mass extinction 250 million years ago.

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Masters of Disguise

In the face of danger, what's a spineless animal to do? This video segment introduces the concept of camouflage -- how animals achieve it and how this form of disguise benefits both predators and prey. Footage from NOVA: "Animal Impostors."

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Meet Carrie Anderson: Taking on Titan

In this video from NASA, astronomer Carrie Anderson studies Saturn's moon, Titan, using data transmitted from the Cassini space probe.

Profile: Ethiopian Anthropologist

In this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, meet Ethiopian anthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged and find out why his work has made him a national hero and the leader of a new generation of African-born anthropologists.

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Ratty Old Genes

This video from The Human Spark explores the extraction and interpretation of Neanderthal DNA.

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The Reproductive Role of Flowers

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn about the critical role of flowers in seed plant reproductive biology.

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Revealing the Origins of Life

Learn how scientists explore the chemistry behind the first life on Earth and discover one way it may have arisen from simple chemicals and natural pathways, in this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW.

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Reverse Evolution Machine

In this video adapted from KQED's QUEST, learn how scientist David Haussler is using biotechnology to reconstruct ancient genomes in an effort to find out how animals have evolved over time.

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Root Systems of Trees at the Congaree Swamp

Learn about root systems of trees in the Congaree Swamp National Park in this video segment from NatureScene.

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Ruminants

Why do cows chew their cud? This video segment from Secret of Life: "Accidents of Creation" describes the physical adaptations that have made ruminants some of the most important, and certainly the most efficient, plant eaters on earth.

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The Search for Another Earth

This NASA video provides an overview of technology under development to explore the planets and stars outside our solar system. These will be the most sensitive instruments built to date.

Secrets in the Salt

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW describes a team of scientists searching for evidence of ancient life within a salt deposit that formed 250 million years ago.

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A Social Network

Alan Alda explores the relationship between social and technological change, specifically in Neanderthal and modern human populations in this video from The Human Spark.

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Switching Genes On and Off

This video segment adapted from NOVA reveals how "junk" DNA helped solve an evolutionary mystery: Why do certain species of fruit flies have wing spots while others don't?

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Talk of Life

Using the FOXP2 “language gene” as an example, this video from The Human Spark explores how similar genes evolve differently in different animals.

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To Make a Spear

About 100,000 years ago, humans began to develop the spear, representing the beginnings of projective technology and organized hunting.

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Transitional Tetrapod Fossil

In this video segment from NOVA: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," learn about the discovery of a well-preserved transitional fossil and how such transitional fossils support the theory of evolution.

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Unique Species of Kentucky's Green River

This KET video from Kentucky's Last Great Places shows how the Green River has remained unusually clean and why it is home to several endangered aquatic species.

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A Variety of Hummingbirds

Learn about different traits and adaptations in various species of hummingbirds in this video from Nature.

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What's the Difference?

This video segment from The Human Spark discusses how certain aspects of Neanderthals’ diet and development set them apart from modern humans.

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What Teeth Can Tell

This segment from The Human Spark shows how modern technology is used to compare the maturity rate of human children with that of Neanderthal children.

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