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: This program looks at the events that lead from the fertilized cell to a human baby. Using film of living fetuses in the womb, it explains how the familiar human shape is "sculpted" out of the basic cell mass, what controls the timing of the various stages of fetal development, and what life is like for a fetus.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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: 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: 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: 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
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program presents a brief history of genetic science, from Darwin's theory of evolution through the discovery of DNA and the invention of gene splicing. Darwin hypothesized a theory, but understood nothing of the mechanism of evolution. The program follows the history of scientific understanding of the nucleus, chromosomes, and the location of hereditary information; explains the work of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Could genetic research stigmatize people who carry a "bad" gene? Could their behavior actually be determined by that gene? If so, then just how free is free will? Moderated by Harvard Law School's Charles Ogletree, this Fred Friendly Seminar scrutinizes social, ethical, and legal issues involving genetic research into undesirable traits such as addiction to alcohol by exploring the relationship...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Could the trauma of a terrorist attack change the genetic characteristics of one's descendants? This program examines the emerging science of epigenetics, which studies biological heredity unrelated to DNA sequencing. With commentary from leading scientists in the field-including geneticist Marcus Pembrey, among the first to observe that dietary stress can produce health problems two...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Our body is composed of billions of cells, but how does each cell know what to become? This program starts with the nucleus of a single cell and then explains the other components the cell needs to function: chromosomes, genes, DNA, and ribosomes. From hair color to height, our genes determine who we are. This program explores, through animated graphics, all of the basic genetic building blocks...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A half-century ago, three teams with three different approaches raced to unravel the structure of DNA. This program blends extensive interviews and firsthand narration with extraordinary graphics to tell the compelling story of how the perhaps unlikely duo of Jim Watson and Francis Crick won that race. Many of the principal figures in the quest discuss their frustrations and insights, including...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the promise of eliminating genetic disease to the threat of eradicating human diversity, the potential of genetics to benefit humankind is matched only by its capacity for harm. Using interviews, archival footage, and period film clips, this insightful program traces the history of genomic research and its dark offspring: behavioral genetics, eugenics, and the commodification of children....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program from The Doctor Is In demonstrates amniocentesis and ultrasound; outlines the advantages of knowing in advance that certain medical procedures are required to save a newborn, and the burden on parents of having to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy; and shows the advantages of avoiding cigarettes and alcohol during pregnancy.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: When it comes to DNA science, nobody has a better track record than Jim Watson; what makes him controversial, however, is his vision of its future. This program looks inside the Pandora's box of genetic manipulation with the man who opened it. Watson serves as guide, exploring some of the current and proposed ways scientists are improving humankind. He also addresses some of his critics,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program discusses the Human Genome Project, gene-related medical research, and beneficial and potentially dangerous applications of genetic technology both to humans and to plants. Efforts to fight disease through gene therapy and recombinant DNA technology are addressed, as well as research into genetically controlling cancer and organ transplant rejection. The risks of agricultural...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The search for a magic bullet against cancer and AIDS is leading to recombinant technology-to explain the nature of the disease problem, help the body's immune system destroy the invader, and accelerate recovery from treatment. As more diseases are being nearly wiped out, more disease-resistant bacteria and viruses are turning up. Vaccine developers are using genetically-engineered vaccines to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Many women now give birth at home. Modern hospitals increasingly employ doulas and midwives. This video examines trends in birthing, including late-in-life motherhood and the treatment of postpartum depression.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program provides an explanation of how the twin techniques of gene splicing and cloning are helping to unravel the secrets of variation. Genetic engineering is altering the branching pattern of natural evolution-which proceeds by mutations within a species and sexual recombination within that species-into a network, in which genes are moved within the laboratory from any species to any...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program analyzes the contributions of Mendel and Darwin, the transmission of single- and multiple-gene disorders, and genetic mutation. Following a description of Mendel's landmark pea-breeding experiments, the principles of heredity are applied to the spread of congenital conditions such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, myotonic dystrophy, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The second half...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: When you look at a family photo, the resemblances, even across several generations, can be striking. What role do genes play, and why aren't siblings identical (and why are some)? This program explains how the formation of sex cells, from the first gamete to chromosome pairs, determines our genetic makeup. Deviations such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, achondroplasia, Klinefelter...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Twenty years after the discovery of DNA's structure, another revolution swept biology when scientists began learning how to manipulate genes outright. The controversy continues. This program tells the story of genetic engineering's pioneers, focusing on the race to synthesize insulin and the development of genetically modified crops. Spectacular computer animations of molecular processes are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005