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: Sir Andrew Huxley-grandson of Darwin's great defender, Thomas Huxley-describes Darwin's motivations, discoveries, and search for a logical theory to explain his observations of both geological and biological evidence in South America, focusing on Darwin's importance as the first to present strong, scientific evidence for descent with modification and to posit a plausible mechanism for its...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Distinguished evolutionary biologists among the auditors of the foregoing lectures take on not only Luther Sutherland
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: All other life forms except humans exist to propagate themselves and pass on their genes; humans alone work to other ends. In this lecture, Richard Dawkins distinguishes between the result of eons of natural selection which has resulted in, say, a bird's tail, whose purpose is to enable the bird to fly-purpose with a survival value-and deliberate design, like an airplane's tail. Dawkins shows...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Luther Sutherland presents what he considers scientific-rather than philosophical or religious-inconsistencies in Darwin's theory which provide, he says, the scientific basis for discrediting the theory of evolution.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Darwin's theory of natural selection, to be valid, required explanations for both the origin of variation and for the inheritance of variants. John Maynard Smith explains Lamarck's theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (in which Darwin believed), Weismann's theory of separate inheritance lines of germ and soma, Mendel's experiments and explanations, and the discovery of the role...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program introduces the concepts of naturally occurring and artificially induced mutagens, demonstrates how X-radiation and chemical additives can produce genetic mutations, introduces Dr. Maclyn McCarty (one of three researchers who identified DNA as the substance that transformed one variety of Pneumococcus into another), and shows how DNA is extracted and precipitated. After viewing the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program illustrates how natural selection works to enable a species to adapt to adverse environments; shows how human breeding of desirable varieties-which antedates by millennia any theories of genetics or evolution-often overrode natural selection; demonstrates how species can be changed by artificial selection and in response to human interference with the environment; and explains the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program shows the process of sedimentation, which has preserved those life forms extant at the time the rock was formed and-most strikingly where the Colorado River has cut through the Grand Canyon-exposes a veritable history of life on earth; presents the stratified evidence that simple organisms populated the earth first, followed by increasingly complex forms; demonstrates modern...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program shows the structure and replicating processes of DNA and the effect of genetic mutation; demonstrates the Lederberg Experiment; and recapitulates the evidence provided by fossils and structural and biological homologies that the process of adaptation and the selection of adaptors rests on a wide range of genetic variability. After viewing the program, students should have a general...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
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