Why the AV version? Because it provides additional usage options for PBS videos. AV versions come with limited performance rights so they can be shown in classrooms, at PTA meetings, during after school programs, and transmitted on a closed-circuit system within a building or on a single campus. They also can be enjoyed in admission-free public screenings, which also makes them ideal for use by library patrons and businesses involved in community clubs and organizations.
Subjects: Life Science
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Becoming Human — Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors – Public Performance
Why the AV version? Because it provides additional usage options for PBS videos. AV versions come with limited performance rights so they can be shown in classrooms, at PTA meetings, during after school programs, and transmitted on a closed-circuit system within a building or on a single campus. They also can be enjoyed in admission-free public screenings, which also makes them ideal for use by library patrons and businesses involved in community clubs and organizations.
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First Flower
In a vivid story, blooming with beauty and scientific mystery, NOVA goes hunting for the world’s earliest flower. Although flowers have long been at the center of human life, gracing our gardens and expressing our emotions-not to mention providing us with food, crops, and medicines-the question of how flowers evolved has long baffled scientists. Charles Darwin called it “an abominable mystery.”
But now a tantalizing fossil that bloomed during the reign of the dinosaurs has surfaced in China. In First Flower, NOVA probes the controversy ignited by this unique fossil, and pursues the trail through the stunning lost world of China’s remote Hengduan Mountains. In this spectacular landscape-dubbed the “Mother of All Gardens”-lie the origins of dozens of plants we take for granted today, including forsythia, clematis, rhododendrons, dogwoods, primroses, and the regal lily. How did they reach our gardens? The detective story behind the evolution of our favorite flowers continues to unfold. Join NOVA on the trail of botany’s most beguiling mystery. -
Master of the Killer Ants
In the Mandaras Mountains of northern Cameroon live the Mofu – an ancient tribe that shares its homes and crops with insects in a mutual balance of survival. But this year, a terrible drought has hit the region and a legion of termites has invaded their huts and granaries. To drive them out, the Mofu shaman calls for help from Jaglavak, a ferocious red army ant protected by a thick carapace and armed with pincers that cut, tear and slice through anything in its path.
Filmed in an intimate style that reveals the traditional customs of the Mofu shaman and the villagers who depend on him, Master of the Killer Ants also uses stunning macro photography to go underground, giving us a terrifying up-close look at a termite’s fortress and the war that rages between termites and Jaglavak. Winner of best film awards at the Shanghai Film Festival and Japan’s Wildlife Film Festival. -
Judgment Day – Intelligent Design on Trial
This program captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in a landmark battle over the teaching of evolution in public schools. In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students about an alternative to Darwinist theory of evolution called intelligent design the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and so must have been designed by an intelligent agent. The teachers refused to comply, and both parents and teachers filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state.
Now, NOVA explores the arguments by lawyers and expert witnesses in riveting detail and provides an eye-opening crash course on questions such as: What is evolution? and is intelligent design a scientifically valid alternative? Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants and expert scientists, this gripping program presents the celebrated case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District. -
Ants – Little Creatures Who Run the World
From vast underground caverns, working class armies pour forth to defend their highly structured communal way of life. Are these feudal societies in the Middle Ages? No, they’re ants! NOVA looks at the most successful life forms on the face of the planet in Ants: Little Creatures Who Run the World, hosted by Harvard University’s internationally renowned ant authority, naturalist Edward O. Wilson. What’s impressive about ants is how they practice what we preach: family values. All ants belong to extended families and carry their prey home to share. Unselfishness is the rule. Everything they do is for their colony’s good. For them, socialism works.
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Bugs!
Ants: Little Creatures Who Run the World: Explore vast underground caverns, from which working-class armies pour forth to defend their highly structured communal way of life. Are these feudal societies in the Middle Ages? No, they’re ants! Hosted by Harvard University’s internationally renowned ant authority, naturalist Edward O. Wilson, NOVA looks at the most successful life forms on Earth. What’s impressive about ants? All ants belong to extended families, and unselfishness is the rule. Everything they do is for their colony’s benefit. For them, socialism works.
Bees: Tales from the Hive: Did you know it takes nectar from 10 million flowers to create a single liter of honey? No wonder they’re called worker bees! Amazing up-close footage filmed with special lenses brings you the most intimate–and most spectacular–portrayal of a working bee colony ever filmed. Expose yourself to a bee colony’s secret world. It’s not frightening–it’s fascinating.
The Unknown World : They’re hiding in your closet. They’re lurking in your bed. They’re all over you–snacking on your skin, burrowing through your scalp, munching on your mascara. They’re the creepy crawlers of the unknown world, and now–thanks to micro-photographer Lennart Nilsson, you can catch these critters in the act, magnified to monster size. Zoom in: a secret drama is taking place, in, on, and around us in a hidden world. And yes, we’re all in it togetherttwhether we know it or not. (170 min on 3 DVDs) -
Bees – Tales from the Hive
Amazingly up-close footage filmed with specially developed macro lenses brings you the most intimate- and most spectacular- portrayal of a working bee colony ever filmed. It’s not frightening- it’s fascinating. See things you never imagined. Hear things only bees hear. Discover new found facts about the strange and complex life of bees.
Have you ever seen the high-speed mid-air “wedding flight” of a drone and his queen? Do you know how the colony defends itself against honey-loving bears? Did you know it takes nectar from 10 million flowers to create a single liter of honey? No wonder they’re called worker bees! Bees: Tales from the Hive exposes a bee colony’s secret world- detailing such rarely-seen events as the life-or-death battle between a pair of rival queens, a bee eater’s attack on the hive, and a scout bee’s mysterious dance that shares special “nectar directions” with the rest of the hive. -
Dogs and More Dogs
We feed them, breed them, pet them and dress them, but how well do we really know them? John Lithgow narrates this insightful look at how dogs evolved from fierce wolves to playful pets-and why there are so many types of dogs today. NOVA goes beyond the wagging tails and floppy ears to reveal surprising insights into the origin and evolutionary strategy of our canine companions. From a wolf research facility in rural Indiana to New York’s Westminster Dog Show, you’ll discover some amazing dog facts. Did you know the Saluki can beat any other mammal on earth in a three-mile race? That dogs developed spots for a specific reason? And that their evolution is helping us learn about our own? Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.
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Mystery of the Senses Set
Enjoy a celebration of the senses. Hearing visits the quietest place on earth, the music-rich Maori and a deaf woman regaining her hearing. Smell samples a huge spectrum of smells, from the world’s largest perfumery to sweaty t-shirts. Taste savors the miracle of great cooking and eating. Touch discovers that touching is a potent tonic. And Vision explores how art and science enhance our most magical sense. A mysterious perfume. A mouth-watering meal. An ardent kiss. A stirring song. A radiant painting. Our senses are a source of inexhaustible pleasure as well as endless information. Inspired by the bestseller A Natural History of the Senses by poet, author, adventurer and sensory epicure Diane Ackerman, Mystery of the Senses is a vivid blend of science and imagery, literature and folklore, history and personal adventure. In five one-hour programs, this special NOVA miniseries celebrates each of the five senses – hearing, smell, taste, touch and vision – through Ackerman’s unique perspective. “To really have a full ‘sense’ of life,” Ackerman insists, “we need to understand how our senses work- their purpose, range and richness- and think about how they reveal the world to us and fill us with endless pleasures.”