Summary: Beginning with a mind-boggling stunt that only science or spirituality can justify-a veritable walk through fire-this program examines humankind's long, complicated relationship with the ravenous power of combustion. Fire was, for millennia, humanity's principal source of heat and energy, and viewers learn the implications of that fact in scenes of Britain's industrial revolution as well as...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: Much of our understanding of climate change and the precarious state of the Earth's polar ice is due to the work of French glaciologist Claude Lorius. This program documents several of his missions to Antarctica and his primary innovation: heavy-hydrogen analysis of drilled ice core samples. Detailed interviews with Lorius and with several of his colleagues are interwoven with astonishing,...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009

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Summary: Curiosity is often the driving force behind great discoveries. In this program, Friedemann Schrenk teams up with Meave Leakey to examine fossil specimens recovered at Lake Turkana, Lothagam, and Kanapoi, where they discuss the relationships between Australopithicus afarensis, A. boisei, and Homo habilis. Dr. Schrenk also visits the Nairobi Museum, the Anatomical Institute in Dar es Salaam, and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: He was a philosopher, paleontologist, Jesuit priest-and far more than the sum of these disparate labels. Illuminating the life and work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, this program examines his origins, his difficulties with Catholic orthodoxy, and his legacy as a major contributor to the "living Earth" theory. Interviewing scientists and religious leaders influenced by Teilhard, the program...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Gladstone, James

Summary: Describes the formation of planet Earth, from its beginnings as molten rock and poison gas, to the formation of oceans, to the evolution of life.

Format: text

Publisher / Publication Date: Owlkids Books Inc. 2017

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Summary: 160 million years ago, a massive lava flow in China's Junggar Basin resulted in an eerily preserved "community" akin to the ruins of Pompeii-in this case, not a scene of human domesticity but a spectacular dinosaur graveyard. This program explores the site and evokes one of the most exciting questions in paleontology: how and why did dinosaurs become gigantic? Viewers are shown specimens from...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissue, but never intact DNA. Trying a new approach, Horner has now been taking living descendants of the dinosaur - chickens - and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits. In this TEDTalk, Horner discusses...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

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Summary: Did the ancestors of the human race go through a crucial semi-aquatic phase? This balanced program examines the latest evidence that water played a major role in human evolution and assesses how it stands up to the traditional Savanna Theory proposed by Darwin. Preeminent critics and adherents of the Aquatic Ape Theory discuss such key points as humans' unique diving reflex and voluntary breath...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Since Darwin's day, explanations for the causation of evolution have come and gone, Lamarckism, mutationism, and the existence of a built-in mechanism driving to perfection all dismissed for lack of evidence and the proofs of molecular biology. Ernst Mayr examines and evaluates the modifications and adaptations to Darwin's theory of natural selection, to determine whether the resulting...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: In this program, James Lovelock explains the development and evolution of his Gaia hypothesis, which considers the Earth as an intimately linked system of physical, chemical, and biological processes, interacting in a self-regulating way to maintain the conditions necessary for life. He discusses counterarguments proposed by scientists including Richard Dawkins. The Daisyworld climatic...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Sea-level change has occurred throughout Earth's history. What can the past tell scientists today about the rise and fall of the planet's oceans? This program takes viewers on a virtual field trip to the Book Cliffs, in Utah-the place where sequence stratigraphy was developed and tested-to study and interpret the sedimentary record there. Some of the field evidence for sea-level change is...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: This program gives viewers a spectacular glimpse of the tumultuous first billion years of Planet Earth—a time of continuous catastrophe. Vivid animation lets viewers witness the traumatic birth of the Moon from a titanic collision between Earth and an object believed to have been the size of Mars. Bombarded by meteors and comets, rocked by massive volcanic eruptions, and scoured by hot acid...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004

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Summary: In the 17th century, an Irish bishop judged the year of Earth's creation to be 4004 BC. Although laughable by modern scientific standards, James Ussher's calculation was among the first rigorous attempts to comprehend the vastness of geological history. This program opens a window into time frames that dwarf human life spans-evoking the insignificance of civilization in comparison to the age of...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007

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Summary: Since Charles Darwin formulated his theory of natural selection, our view of the world has changed. Although Darwin's theory itself has "evolved," scientists agree that living species slowly but surely diverged from common ancestors. This program begins with a segment on fossils, one of the most convincing proofs of evolution. It then retraces the major steps of evolution as they were uncovered...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

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Summary: This program presents fossil evidence for the evolution of reptiles and amphibians; explains the reasoning processes scientists must use when no direct evidence is available for examination; illustrates field techniques for collecting fragile fossils for transportation to the laboratory, where examination can take place under controlled conditions; and traces the evolution of some modern...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Is the key theory about how we evolved from apes based on mistaken evidence? Since 1974, the 3.2-million-year-old fossil dubbed "Lucy" has been considered humankind's prime ancestor. Now, a fossil recently unearthed in Kenya by distinguished paleontologist Dr. Meave Leakey is rewriting the theories. This program examines the implications of Flat-Faced Man, a bipedal hominid just as old as Lucy...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: This program provides arguments in favor of continental drift and the one-time existence of a supercontinent, shows how isolation can give rise to different species and how species develop in response to their environments, and explains clines and suggests the reason for their existence. After viewing the program, students should understand the significance of the continental drift theory, the...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Earth, water, wind, and fire according to tradition, these four pieces make up the complex puzzle of our world. In the spirit of that tradition, is there a fifth component, one so close and disturbingly powerful that we choose to overlook it? This program reverses the concept that nature shapes human destiny and instead focuses on the impact our species has had, and will continue to have, on...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011

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