Summary: This program explores the most common types of birth defects, covering the major classifications: malformations present at birth, inborn errors of metabolism, blood disorders, and prenatal damage. The video also includes information on the prevention of birth defects, with an emphasis placed on the importance of good prenatal care.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Babies born more than three months prematurely have low chances of survival, and a preemie that beats the odds may face serious-even lifelong-medical issues. This video describes the battle for life in a high-tech neonatal care unit and how parents of preemies can find support.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Rachel has lost six pregnancies-but a London medical center is giving her a fighting chance at motherhood. This program records a year inside the Recurrent Miscarriage Clinic at St. Mary's Hospital, a facility renowned for its state-of-the-art treatment. Underscoring the cautious optimism that the clinic has inspired in thousands of couples, the program details pregnancy planning and care for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Difficulty in conceiving a child is becoming an increasingly common problem for many couples. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infertility affects more than 6 million men and women in the United States. As this program shows, infertility can be frustrating, mysterious, and difficult to cope with-however, advances in assisted reproductive technology are also...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The last few decades have seen a dramatic increase in cases of low sperm count, sperm abnormalities, and testicular cancer—while, in more than 20 industrialized nations, the male birth rate has steadily declined. This program examines the phenomenon and its likely cause: synthetic chemicals found in everything from common plastics to meat and dairy products. Investigating these so-called...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: From hydras to humans, every organism on Earth can trace its ancestry back to the first primitive cell. Will biotechnology one day create a cell outside of that family tree? This program looks at 21st-century genetic science and its search for the secret of life's creation. Background information highlights the Oparin-Haldane Hypothesis and its vision of a prebiotic soup as well as Stanley...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Dissection specialist Gunther von Hagens utilizes two cadavers in this program-an arrangement necessary for teaching human sexual anatomy. Von Hagens outlines the basics of male-female intercourse before detailing the physiology of human genitalia and the functions of important glands. Analyzing the penis, scrotum, testes, and vas deferens, he explains the process of sperm production and how,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Birth: an entrance into life, the beginning of discovery, and a forging of essential bonds. This program weaves footage of many women's experiences of childbirth with valuable commentary from obstetricians, midwives, psychologists, counselors, and recent mothers and fathers. Key topics covered are sonograms and prenatal examinations, changing attitudes to the role of pain in childbirth,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the womb to old age, it is believed that hormones have a powerful impact on gender and sexuality. Drawing on the research of Roger Gorski, professor of neurobiology at UCLA, and Donatella Marazzitti, of Pisa University, this program explores both the role of sex hormones and the biochemistry of love. Case studies of transgendering and a condition in which a woman's body produces an excess...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Human reproduction is a fascinating and complex process, especially when seen microscopically. This program presents a close-up view of reproduction, beginning with the fertilization of the female egg, through gestation and the millions of cell divisions, and culminating in the birth of a fully formed individual. Each stage of the development is visualized in sequence: when the heart begins to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines some of the issues raised by the potential uses and misuses of genetic technology. The program demonstrates the techniques of both ultrasound scanning and amniocentesis as well as explains genetic manipulation techniques and the potential applications of the knowledge gained from the human genome project. The program provides a complete introduction to the following...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although the impact of genetic research on human life is an ever-changing and often theoretical prospect, our current knowledge of the human genome already has direct, real-world applications. This program looks at several ways in which genetic breakthroughs have improved health care technology and enriched the study of human physiology. Case studies focus on DNA screening and its benefits-for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why are girls entering puberty at progressively younger ages? Why are the rates of heart attack, cancer, and adult-onset diabetes rising? This program examines growing indications that food affects our genes-a concept vitally important to the science of epigenetics. Viewers encounter a wide range of experiments, case studies, and historical evidence, including Dutch birth records and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Science is identifying new biological processes that determine a person's sex. How will these findings affect the transgender and transsexual community? This program explores the latest research into gender development and the medical, cultural, and legal issues at the heart of the "brain sex" school of thought. Showing how human genome research has shifted scientific focus away from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program offers an overview of genetics and cloning as they occur both in nature and in the laboratory while addressing the ethical and social implications of genetic engineering. Genes, chromosomes, and DNA are identified, and the process of cell fertilization is demonstrated. Identical human twins are presented as an example of naturally occurring clones. The synthesis of human insulin...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This collection of 54 video clips (1 minute to 2 minutes 30 seconds each) takes a close look at infectious diseases and medical disorders, spotlighting AIDS, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, aneurysms, asthma, autism, avian flu, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, food allergies, heart attack, Huntington’s disease, macular degeneration, malaria, Marburg virus, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, Spanish...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: How far should people be allowed to go in trying to have better babies? And whose definition of “better” should prevail? This Fred Friendly Seminar moderated by Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry considers the ethical dilemmas facing individuals and society that grow out of prenatal testing and genetic options that may be available in the future—such as cloning. Panelists include...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Due to ignorance, politics, and misused technologies, childbirth until very recently was often deadly to mother and child. This program presents a medical history of childbirth from ancient times to the present, contrasting methods and beliefs of the past with today's obstetrics. Along with commentary from obstetricians, medical historians, and evolutionary biologists, the program highlights...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: How accurate is the term "identical twins"? Can a cell-for-cell likeness between two siblings really exist? And what does that say about the supposed uniqueness of each human being? This program examines the genetics, physiology, and psychology behind such questions as it presents fascinating real-world case studies of identical twin development. Viewers meet monozygotic twins raised apart and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The emerging science known as "fetal origins" posits that an individual's physical and emotional health over the course of a lifetime is affected by what they experienced while in the womb. In this fascinating TEDTalk, science writer Annie Murphy Paul shares research that shows how much pregnant women pass on to their babies in utero - from the accents of their native language to food...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Attraction, desire, and sexual coupling lead to conception. This program covers the physiological events underlying the process of reproduction.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Imagine a future in which physical strength and assertiveness are the top-selling items on "baby menus." This program explores that possibility and other frightening implications of market-driven genetic engineering. Showing how the government-funded Human Genome Project has become highly lucrative for pharmaceutical companies, the video examines cases of exploitative gene harvesting in Iceland...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: A world without teenage angst, PMS, and mid-life crisis; a life without hair loss and wrinkles: are these products of wishful thinking, or genuine scientific possibilities? In this program, scientists from the University of Wisconsin and the Life Extension Institute in Palm Springs strive to answer that question through their intriguing research. Clinical studies into hormone supplements for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: For most couples, getting pregnant is an easy matter, but not so for the 15 percent with infertility problems. This highly technical program designed for advanced anatomy courses and health-care practitioners focuses on the processes that lead to normal impregnation, and the physical hindrances that can prevent it. Superb microscopy and computer animation illustrate the processes, and show how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008