Scientists have struggled for centuries to pinpoint the qualities that distinguish humans from the millions of other animal species with which we share the vast majority of our DNA. Now we explore those traits once thought to be uniquely human to discover their evolutionary roots.
Scientists have struggled for centuries to pinpoint the qualities that distinguish humans from the millions of other animal species with which we share the vast majority of our DNA. Now we explore those traits once thought to be uniquely human to discover their evolutionary roots.
2012-12-11
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Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.
Explore the secrets of the universe with Professor Brian Cox in this special event that combines ground-breaking science with the power of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
A clip in the Science Please! collection, Slippery Ice! uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain why we slip on ice.
With the impending ice age almost upon them, a mismatched trio of prehistoric critters – Manny the woolly mammoth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger and Sid the giant sloth – find an orphaned infant and decide to return it to its human parents. Along the way, the unlikely allies become friends but, when enemies attack, their quest takes on far nobler aims.
A philosophical burlesque, Human Nature follows the ups and downs of an obsessive scientist, a female naturalist, and the man they discover, born and raised in the wild. As scientist Nathan trains the wild man, Puff, in the ways of the world - starting with table manners - Nathan's lover Lila fights to preserve the man's simian past, which represents a freedom enviable to most.
They have no roots, no seeds, no flowers, but mosses show immense survival capacities and can suspend their biological activity for long periods. Today, researchers are exploring the exceptional resistance of these archaic organisms. British ecologists have even resurrected a "zombie" moss that has been trapped in the permafrost for 1,500 years. Associated with decay and disliked in Europe, mosses are deified in Japan. With 25,000 species worldwide, bryophytes - their scientific name - are the seat of real ecosystems, and can develop in inhospitable landscapes, through an extravagant reproduction cycle.
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
A grim world is blessed by pre-modern man's wrath and it's beautiful light succumbs to the dark abyss of the neolithic reign of mother natures new conquerors, the Homo-Sapiens and their predecessors. Detailed thematic depictions of man's effects on earth and their ascent to dominance presented in short stop-motion animated segments fantasizing about the human race's beginnings and eventual domination of our world.
What forms might life take in the Solar System and beyond? In the Academy's newest original planetarium show, see how a deeper understanding of Earth might help us locate other living worlds, light years away.
This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.
Two brains in jars exist exclusively in a game of PONG, oblivious to the world falling apart outside of their computer.
As the end approaches inexorably, the last humans, living millions of years into the future, send a message to the humanity of the present that is both a plea for help and a warning, but also an epic tale of evolution, decline and hope.
A teenager labeled as having a mental disorder by his father. When he has no intention or purpose in life, his friend comes and and will change his life completely.
If machines can be smarter than people, is humanity really anything special?
Bill Nye is retiring his kid show act in a bid to become more like his late professor, astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan dreamed of launching a spacecraft that could revolutionize interplanetary exploration. Bill sets out to accomplish Sagan's mission, but he is pulled away when he is challenged by evolution and climate change contrarians to defend the scientific consensus. Can Bill show the world why science matters in a culture increasingly indifferent to evidence?
When Van Helsing's mysterious invention, the "Monsterfication Ray," goes haywire, Drac and his monster pals are all transformed into humans, and Johnny becomes a monster. In their new mismatched bodies, Drac and Johnny must team up and race across the globe to find a cure before it's too late, and before they drive each other crazy.