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Miracle Body: Running – Built for Record Speed
Original Title: Miracle Body: Running – Built for Record Speed
Duration: 49’
Producer: Isao Kimura / Kazuaki Ikeda
Director: Yoriko Koizumi
Company: NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.)
Scientific Field: Technologies
Year: 2008
Country: Japan
Running at incredible speeds, jumping to unimaginable heights, responding with lighting speed, top-class athletes amaze and captivate spectators with their almost superhuman athletic prowess. But the physiological secrets for their success cannot be seen by the human eye. Making extensive use of various filming techniques NHK has developed, Miracle Body captures and analyzes four actions of the body -- running, swimming, jumping, and reacting.
Monster Black Hole
Original Title: Monster Black Hole
Duration: 60’
Producer: Thomas Lucas, John Lindsay
Director: Thomas Lucas, Andrew Hamilton
Company: Thomas Lucas Productions, Inc.
Scientific Field: Space / Exact Sciences
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Monster Black Hole traces the life cycle of a black hole, from its violent beginnings in the early universe, to its growth to supermassive proportions at the center of a galaxy, and its death in deep time. The film starts with the March 19th detection of a powerful supernova. The explosion was so bright; its light traveled halfway across 7.5 billion light years of space and was visible to the naked eye. This distant explosion signaled the birth of a black hole. In this cataclysmic event, astronomers had witnessed the birth of a black hole. They are finding that when a black hole is formed, it sucks in surrounding stars and gas, causing space to warp and bend, and erupting in furious jets of energy. But is its life finite? What does it mean for our universe when these monsters finally die?
Moving Earth, The
Original Title: Den Bevægede Jord
Duration: 52’
Producer: Gitte Randloev
Director: Lars Becker-Larsen
Company: Danish Doc Production
Scientific Field: Science History
Year: 2009
Country: Denmark
In his book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the notion of the moving earth: that the sun, and not the earth, is the centre of the universe. This was a highly controversial claim which led to serious confrontations with the church and had a wide-ranging impact on the way we now view the world.
The Moving Earth tells the story of a unique revolution in Renaissance Europe. Setting out from Copernicus’s theory, over the next couple of centuries a network of new natural scientists turned all the usual notions of the universe upside down. Tycho Brahe’s pioneering measurements of the celestial bodies was followed by Kepler’s proof of the elliptical orbits of the planets, Galileo’s epoch-making observations by telescope, and was completed by Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity. Newton himself wrote of this achievement, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.
The new view of the world emerged through vicious opposition from the Christian church and did not gain general acceptance till long afterwards. In Italy the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for his heretical ideas of an infinite universe containing other solar systems. Later, Galileo was brought up before the Inquisition in Rome and sentenced to house arrest for life. Tycho Brahe also fell out of favour and had to abandon his observatory, Uraniborg, when an orthodox Lutheran regime under Christian IV came to power in Denmark…
Music Instinct, The: Science & Song
Original Title: The Music Instinct: Science & Song
Duration: 113’
Producer: Margaret Smilow
Director: Elena Mannes
Company: Thirteen WNET NY
Scientific Field: Neuroscience / Music
Year: 2008
Country: USA
The Music Instinct: Science and Song is a television documentary special exploring startling connections between music and the human mind and body, the natural world and the cosmos. With compelling performances by world-famous performers in genres from rock to classical such as Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley and Evelyn Glennie, The Music Instinct will engage a broad audience.
The Music Instinct delves into questions surrounding the unique effects music has on mental capacity, intelligence, and emotion – our musical self. New work in neuroscience is giving us clues to the mysteries of how and why music penetrates the brain and the emotions. We'll explore the surprising results of new research - like the fact that musicians' brains are actually different from those of non-musicians. The program follows visionary researchers and accomplished musicians to the crossroads of science and culture in search of answers to music's deep mysteries.
Musical Brain, The
OriginalTitle: The Musical Brain
Duration: 46’25’’
Producer: Vanessa Dylyn
Director: Christina Pochmursky
Company: Matter of Fact Media Inc.
Scientific Field: Culture / Anthropology
Year: 2009
Country: Canada
The Musical Brain is a thrilling romp through revolutionary brain experiments and pop music, revealing how our brains process music - helping us understand our motives, fears, desires, and memories.
Recording artist Sting puts his brain on the altar of science to reveal the mysteries of why music is such a powerful force in our lives. And Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music, leads the way in the exploration of how the brain uses music to create human experience.
Insights and performances from Michael Buble, Feist and Wyclef Jean reveal their musical influences and illuminate their art. At every turn, this provocative film will unlock deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge the uniquely human obsession with music.
Naming Pluto
OriginalTitle: Naming Pluto
Duration: 13’
Producer: Ginita Jimenez
Director: Ginita Jimenez
Company: Father Films
Scientific Field: Space / History
Year: 2008
Country: UK
This is the story of Venetia Phair (nee Burney), the only person alive to have named a planet. As an 11-year-old Oxford schoolgirl in 1930, Venetia came up with the suggestion for the name of the newly discovered Planet X over a family breakfast, making her inspiration to name it Pluto a unique contribution to scientific history.
Having never to date seen Pluto through a telescope and in the recent light of its demotion in 2007, Venetia is given the opportunity to view the planet she named 77years after its discovery, coincidentally on the eve of her 89th birthday.
Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies
Original Title: Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies
Duration: 2x 80’
Producer: CNRS Images
Director: Bernard LHoste / Hervé Colombani / Alain Monclin
Company: CNRS Images
Scientific Field: Technologies
Year: 2008
Country: France
Un nouveau monde est en formation. Peuple d’objets aux comportements étranges, son univers est celui des nanomètres taille des atomes et des molécules. Les nanosciences étudient les propriétés de ces objets. Les nanotechnologies les intègrent a de très nombreux dispositifs pour des utilisations pratiques.
Ce DVD conçu pour un public curieux, invite a un voyage étonnant pour découvrir le nanomonde. Il s’inscrit dans une collection de DVD thématiques et propose une visite en cinq étapes du pays exotique des nanomondes.
Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist
Original Title: Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist
Duration: 60’
Producer: Richard Rifkind / Carole Rifkind
Director: Richard Rifkind / Carole Rifkind
Company: ParnassusWorks
Scientific Field: Molecular Biology
Year: 2009
Country: USA
Enter the world of high stakes scientific research. NATURALLY OBSESSED: the making of a scientist charts the exciting, but tumultuous journey of Rob, a quirky perennial drop-out who is determined to make it as a scientist, and Larry, his laboratory chief, who guides him through an exceedingly challenging and risky course of research. In their ultimate triumph -- the discovery of the biological “switch” that controls appetite – Rob and Larry glimpse something in nature that no one has ever seen before. Turning the science documentary genre upside down, NATURALLY OBSESSED is a vivid portrait of the transformation from curious novice into independent scientist.
New Anatomy Show: “Why does it take time to feel muscle pain when older?” & “Why do we choke?”
OriginalTitle: New Anatomy Show: “Why does it take time to feel muscle pain when older?” “Why do we choke?”
Duration: 28’30’’
Producer: Kazuhiro Kitano
Director: Toshiyuki Ono
Company: NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.)
Scientific Field: Medical
Year: 2008
Country: Japan
The program scrutinizes the anatomy of the human body, which is full of mysteries, by making use of the state of the art technology. It not only provides answers to questions we have about our bodies, it also presents various knowledge that we can immediately relate to.
The themes of this edition are “Why do we choke?” and “Why does it take time to feel a muscle pain when older?”
New Prospects in Autism
Original Title: L’Autisme, d’Aujourd’hui à Demain
Duration: 28’
Producer: CNRS Images
Director: Marcel Dalaise
Company: CNRS Images
Scientific Field: Medical
Year: 2008
Country: France
Nikola Tesla - The Prophet of the Scientific Future
Original Title: Νικόλα Τέσλα - Ο Προφήτης του Επιστημονικού Μέλλοντος
Duration: 29‘05’’
Producer: THE ART FACTORY S.A.
Director: Kostas Haralambous
Company: THE ART FACTORY S.A.
Scientific Field: History of Science
Year: 2009
Country: Greece
The noted Serb scientist Nikola Tesla is the inventor of the alternating electric current and of its practical applications. In the United States, where he emigrated, he collaborated initially with Thomas Edison and later on with George Westinghouse to built alternating current generators, transformers and motors. An eminent moment for alternating current and Tesla came in 1893, when the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago was illuminated with his system, used since by all humankind. Tesla was also experimenting with radio waves and he described in detail the basic principles of radio emission: the radio was born and Tesla is his true inventor. The rotating magnetic field, the Tesla coil used in radio and TV technology, the multi-phase system he developed in Niagara Falls, the terrestrial stationary waves and some prototype propulsion motors are Tesla’s discoveries and had practical applications.
Nobel Textiles
Original Title: Nobel Textiles
Duration: 6x10’-20’
Producer: Kirstin von Glasow
Director: Kirstin von Glasow
Company: Palladio Film
Scientific Field: Biology
Year: 2008
Country: UK
Our lives are structured, explained and enhanced in very different ways by both discovery and design. Collaborations between science and design can help us understand the present and shape our future. Nobel Textiles marries scientific discovery to design.
The Nobel Textiles films document a journey into the interface between science and design, a dialogue and creative relationship between leading researchers in both fields. Five textile- and fashion designers pair up with five Nobel Prize-winning scientists - John Sulston, Aaron Klug, Peter Mansfield, Tim Hunt and John E. Walker - and create 'intelligent textiles' inspired by their discoveries. The textiles react to stimuli such as light or heat, they can change colour or pattern, self-fold or biodegrade after a certain period of time. These properties make them the ideal medium for the transformation of natural processes into man-made fabrics. Five short films capture each scientist-designer pairing, document their interactions, the research and the creation of the resulting textile collections. An additional film addresses the project more broadly, exploring parallels between the different projects and the role of serendipity in scientific- and design processes.
NOVA Science Now
Original Title: NOVA Science Now
Duration: 3x56’46’’
Producer: Paula Apsell / Samuel Fine
Director:
Company: NOVA Science Now is Produced for WGBH / Boston by NOVA
Scientific Field: Environments / Space / Genetics / Exact Sciences / Medical / Technologies / Scientist Profiles
Year: 2008
Country: USA
DARK MATTER - Host Neil deGrasse Tyson reports from a half mile underground in an abandoned mine, where scientists are using special detectors…
ALZHEIMER’S/MEMORY MICE - The brain is an astonishingly complex organ that continues to surprise scientists with its hidden capabilities. ..
PROFILE: HANY FARID - Is seeing believing? In this age of easy photo manipulation, sometimes. ..
WISDOM OF THE CROWD - Beware of fallacies in statistical reasoning! That’s the moral of this comical, originally composed song...
PERSONAL DNA TESTING - To test or not to test? That’s the question that faces host Neil deGrasse Tyson as he ponders whether. ..
DIGITAL ART - Vincent van Gogh has inspired several talented artists to turn their hands to forgery...
CARBON CAPTURE - Can an eighth grader’s science fair project show the way to dealing with rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?. ..
PROFILE: PARDIS SABETI - Rock out with a bass-playing geneticist who combines rhythmic intensity.. ..
HUBBLE REPAIR MISSION - Hubble is in trouble. The Hubble Space Telescope, that is. The amazingly productive scientific instrument. ..
FIRST PRIMATE -Could one of our early ancestors have been a tree-climbing creature the size of a mouse? If University of Florida paleontologist Jonathan Bloch is correct. ..
ALFREDO QUIONES-HINOJOSA - It’s been two decades since Alfredo Quiones-Hinojosa jumped the border fence separating Mexico and the U.S. and.. ..
IRAQI BACTERIA - There’s a killer in Iraq attacking injured soldiers, but it doesn’t carry a gun. The culprit is a deadly microbe. ..
O as Origin
Original Title: O comme origine
Duration: 07‘30’’
Producer: CNDP & CNRS
Director: Yannick Mahé
Company: CNDP
Scientific Field: History / Evolution
Year: 2008
Country: France
Once upon a time, 4 billion years ago, when the many asteroids in the universe were combining to form planets, a block of ice races through space heading for a terrible collision with a young planet. Our hero, the little water molecule Piccolina, lands on earth.
From that simple frozen water molecule lost in a galaxy, Piccolina becomes the elixir of life that irrigates the earth.
Journey through time and space and meet some very strange and eccentric molecules, linking, combining…and getting more and more complex. What is to become of Piccolina when she is trapped by the gang of hydrophobes?
O2 – The Molecule that made our World
Original Title: O2 – The Molecular that made our World
Duration: 50‘48’’
Producer: John Carpenter / Steve Nicholls / Alfred Vendl
Director: John Carpenter / Steve Nicholls / Alfred Vendl
Company: Burning Gold & AV Dokumenta for ORF
Scientific Field: History / Exact Sciences
Year: 2008
Country: Austria
Using latest CGI combined with live-action reconstructions, this film follows the journey of a molecule of oxygen, an adventure that takes place over a span of thousands of millions of years. The story begins with the photosynthesis of a bacteria - and in doing so it produces the molecule of oxygen gas. The way of the oxygen unfolds and at times it is torn apart and becomes part of other molecules. It is involved in the conflagrations that accompanied the death of the dinosaurs after the great asteroid impact, then travels through a human body to combine with haemoglobin in the blood and to take part in chemical reactions in individual cells. For a while the oxygen even spends some time as ozone, protecting earth from deadly radioation but then connects to a carbon dioxide molecule to help warming earth and bring about unknown consequences of climate change. Following this strong and fascinating central story, the film explores key moments in the history of the earth and of science in an unusual and visual way. "O-Two" is an intriguing and ambitious journey through biology, chemistry and physics.
On the road with Homo Sapiens
Original Title: På resa med Homo Sapiens
Duration: 27’56’’
Producer: Magnus Sjöström
Director: Magnus Sjöström
Company: UR – Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company
Scientific field: Evolutionary Biology
Year: 2008
Country: Sweden
The series On the Road with Homo Sapiens takes a closer look on the human animal. Three episodes address the topics of how our species resemble and differ from other species, how it came to be that our uniquely human characteristics evolved, and where evolution is bringing us. Who are we? How did we get here? And where are we heading? Three timeless questions only the last few years have given us the potential to answer. More sophisticated methods of analysis, new fossil finds, and the enabling power of the sequenced human genetic code are new and powerful weapons in the arsenal for scientists tracing out the remarkable voyage of Homo sapiens.
The last episode of the series, "Where are we heading?" previews a possible future of the human species. We meet researchers that look at how the merging of new biological knowledge and accelerating technological development may alter the human species dramatically. We also meet practitioners already using such methods in their daily work. In a possible future, parents may have access to genetic information and methods permitting them to subtract or add characteristics to their children. And, if coming generations are as keen as earlier ones to give their children the best possible starting conditions, it’s not a question of whether or not, but rather when methods such as embryo screening and gene modification become as accepted as today’s ultrasound technique and amniotic fluid testing...
Original Whale Riders, The
Original Title: Sur le Dos des Baleines
Duration: 52’
Producer: Benjamin Ternynck
Director: Jean – Michel Corillion
Company: Kwanza
Scientific field: Environment / Wildlife
Year: 2008
Country: France
In order to know more about the infinitesimally large, let’s study the infinitesimally small”.
Laurent Soulier is a parasitologist specialized in marine mammals. He thinks he can save entire populations of whales by studying their lice! His mission is now to collect these precious parasites.
But time is getting short and he can’t wait for a beached whale any longer. There is only one solution: to grab these small creatures from living cetaceans... A very tricky and dangerous challenge awaits Laurent, as it is no small thing to swim with such a massive animal. One whale is the size of 10 elephants and weighs 40 tons. Even though whales are not aggressive, their unpredictable behaviour can make them extremely dangerous. The pressure exercised by the fluke can exceed several tons per cm2: enough to knock out a diver, without even touching him! Even if he finally approaches these sea giants, Laurent will still have to figure out a way to collect 1cm parasites from their skin... It is like finding
a scorpion on a soccer field! With the help of a local fisherman and an underwater field expert, Laurent must achieve something that no one has tried before! Will he succeed in this unbelievable quest? From his laboratory to the waters of New Caledonia and olynesia, Laurent takes us to the other side of the world for an exceptional adventure, along with a discovery that could very well save the last humpback whales on the planet
Otepää Gonne
Original Title: Otepää Püss
Duration: 29’
Producer: Jaana Ratas
Director: Riho Västrik
Company: Vesilind Ltd & Estonian History Museum
Scientific field: Experimental / History / Archaeology
Year: 2008
Country: Estonia
The fragments of the oldest firearm known from Estonia were found during the archaeological excavations of the Otepää castle in 1955 but identified as such only in the late 1980s. In this film the "handgonne" from Otepää is brought back to life by archaeologist Jaak Mäll - re-fabricated using mediaeval technologies and trial-shot with gunpowder made according the recipes from the early 15th century.
Peru – Slaves to the Pacific
Original Title: Pérou – Les Forçats du Pacifique
Duration: 52’
Producer: Yves Darondeau / Christophe Lioud / Emmanuel Priou / Canal+
Director: Jérôme Delafosse
Company: Bonne Pioche Productions
Scientific field: Environment / Wildlife / Culture / Anthropology / Nature / Fishing
Year: 2007
Country: France
Du Pérou on imagine, les contreforts des Andes, les forteresses oubliées, les civilisations guerrières. On connaît moins le lien historique et violent qui unit les hommes et l’Océan, et le riche courant marin de Humboldt grâce auquel le pays s’est hissé au premier rang mondial des producteurs de pêche.
Des voltigeurs des falaises, qui risquent humblement leur vie pour quelques coquillages, aux pêcheurs qui chaque nuit remontent à mains nues plusieurs tonnes de calmars géants, en passant par les Caballitos, frêles embarcations héritées des civilisations pré-incas, Jérôme Delafosse est parti le long des côtes du pacifique pour tenter de comprendre les enjeux de la pêche dans la société péruvienne moderne. Un monde où s’oppose le respect de l’environnement et des traditions à la grande pêche industrielle qui risque de condamner les ressources. Au-delà de cette réalité, Jérôme est parti partager le quotidien d’hommes exceptionnels qui chaque jour affrontent les éléments pour assurer leur survie.
Polar Dust
Original Title: Poussières du Pôle
Duration: 30’
Producer: CNRS Images
Director: Jean–François Dars / Anne Papillault
Company: CNRS Images
Scientific field: Exact Sciences / Astronomy
Year: 2007
Country: France
From 2000 to 2006, Jean Duprat, a physicists at the CSNSM, went three times to the scientific base Concordia at the South Pole to collect micrometeorites, in order to understand thanks to these witnesses of the first moments of the primitive solar system, how the Sun and its planets were formed 4.5 billion years ago.
Prehistoric Spain
Original Title: La España Prehistorica
Duration: 90’
Producer: Madrid Scientific Films
Director: Javier Trueba
Company: Madrid Scientific Films
Scientific field: Human Evolution
Year: 2008
Country: Spain
The general outline of human evolution is quite well known. But major mysteries and significant gaps still remain. This documentary provides a rapid overview of that evolution, from the dark, rainy forests of Africa, where our very first forefathers lived, some six million years ago, to today.
Fossils and archaeological sites give us a good idea of the many ecosystems that were familiar to the first hominids. With the passage of time, they gradually adapted to environments which were open and dry. They learnt to cut and carve, and the first human beings came out of Africa, equipped with the most rudimentary tools. The oldest human fossils of Europe as well as the greatest accumulation of human fossils ever discovered anywhere have been found at the Sierra de Atapuerca.
With the advent of the cold, the first human beings took refuge in caves, seeking shelter, just as many generations of hominids had done before. They took with them, into the caves, the world they had known outside, painting and etching on the walls the animals that inhabited that world. Food was no longer drawn from nature through hunting, fishing or harvesting; it began to be produced via agriculture and cattle herding. That constituted the biggest economic revolution in the history of humankind.
Prince of the Alps
Original Title: Der Prinz der Alpen
Duration: 50’ 48’’
Producer: Klaus Feichtenberger / Otmar Penker
Director: Klaus Feichtenberger / Otmar Penker
Company: ARGEntur for ORF
Scientific field: Environment / Wildlife
Year: 2007
Country: Austria
The red deer is the biggest and the most common species in Central Europe. It’s still there because of its adaptability; when hunters intruded into their habitat and pushed them further back in the forest, the reed deer survived. This film will focus on the difference between the commonly confused red deer and roe and portrays the surrounding animal world of the red deer. It will also show dangers the deer is exposed to due to the reappearance of wolves and bears and an overbearing human presence.
Protontherapy
Original Title: Protonthérapie
Duration: 08’
Producer: RTBF – Patrice Goldberg
Director: François Gonce / Tristan Bourland / Patrice Goldberg
Company: RTBF – Matière Grise
Scientific field: Medical / Technologies
Year: 2007
Country: Belgium
La radiothérapie est utilisée pour traiter 50 % des cancers. Cependant, malgré les énormes progrès réalisés, cette technique comporte certains risques. Les radiations peuvent dans certains cas provoquer des lésions dans des tissus sains. Pour pallier ce problème, une nouvelle technologie beaucoup plus efficace est en plein développement : la protonthérapie. Et c’est une entreprise de Louvain-la-Neuve qui en est le leader mondial ! Voyage aux Etats-Unis, où les machines conçues en Belgique font déjà des merveilles…
Quand la science va à la plage
Original Title: Quand la science va à la plage
Duration: 43’07’’
Producer: Kami Production / Kenichi Watanabe
Director: Claude –Julie Parisot
Company: KAMI Production
Scientific field: Nature
Year: 2008
Country: France
Questions d’éthique
Original Title: Questions d’éthique
Duration: 83’56’’
Producer: Fohrick Winocour
Director: Anne Georget
Company: Quark Production
Scientific field: Culture / Anthropology
Year: 2009
Country: France
Radioactive waste: The Nuclear Nightmare
Original Title: Déchets: Le Cauchemar du Nucléaire
Duration: 98’
Producer: Yves Darondeau / Christophe Lioud / Emmanuel Priou / Sophie Parrault
Director: Éric Guéret
Company: Bonne Pioche Productions
Scientific field: Environment / Culture / Anthropology / Nature
Year: 2009
Country: France
As the world wakes up to the dangers of global warming, industrialists and some politicians are presenting nuclear power as the energy of the future – squeaky-clean, fully under control and perfectly safe for human health and the environment. Sometimes it is even described as sustainable.
But is nuclear power really as clean as they make out?
Proposals to relaunch nuclear power, after most European countries had opted to abandon it, have rekindled the debate between its supporters and opponents. At the heart of the matter is everyone's fear of radioactive waste.
Waste is the nuclear industry's Achilles heel – and its worst nightmare. Populations are afraid of it and scientists still have not found a satisfactory way of dealing with it. Meanwhile, the heads of the industry try to reassure us and politicians avoid the issue.
What exactly do we know about nuclear waste? How can citizens get a clear picture of a subject which has always been shrouded in secrecy?
Our aim is to provide a worldwide overview of the subject of nuclear waste. Filming takes place in France, Germany, Russia and the USA.
The investigation is conducted with the help of independent scientists who travel with us to visit a number of nuclear facilities in different parts of the world. Via field measurements, analyses and encounters with other scientists from all sides of the debate, engineers, workers in the nuclear industry and opponents of nuclear power, the film attempts to…
Reaching for the Sky
Original Title: Der Traum vom Fliegen
Duration: 29’
Producer: Martin Schneider / Dirk Neumann / SWR
Director: Jan Haft
Company: nautilusfilm GmbH
Scientific field: Nature / Wildlife
Year: 2008
Country: Germany
One of the greatest adventures on earth: flying. In the course of evolution many creatures have learned to fly. To explore the origins of flight we have to go way back in time. Millions of years ago dinosaurs were already cruising in the sky but not even they were first in conquering the airspace…
Insects were the pioneers who first left solid ground. They floated through the air on delicate, translucent wings.
The film follows the question on how flight could have evolved and explains the controversial scientific results and conclusions. If birds started to fly “tree down” or “ground up” is still not certain today. A recently found fossil has invalidated the latest theories. And a new fossil could knock it all over again…
Reading the Book of Life
Original Title: Reading the Book of Life
Duration: 30’
Producer: Jack Micay
Director: Jack Micay
Company: MediCinema Ltd.
Scientific field: Genetics
Year: 2007
Country: Canada
Part of a series of nine classroom science videos that cover the history and basic concepts of genetics in an entertaining style, using creative animation and amusing pop songs in addition to the standard documentary elements.
This episode deals with the Human Genome Project (to sequence the entire human genome), which culminated in a high profile race between the original international, publicly sponsored effort and an upstart privately sponsored one headed by maverick scientist Craig Venter. The leaders of this epic effort, including Francis Collins, Craig Venter, Eric Lander, John Sulston and Sydney Brenner, explain its origins, how it was done and what it reveals so far about our book of life.
Having the complete sequence at hand has greatly simplified the search for disease genes and created a whole new approach to understanding genetic diseases. An example is the fascinating story of Williams Syndrome, which produces an unusual Ômix of mental deficits, strengths, musical talent and affability. We meet A.J., a Williams Syndrome kid in San Diego, who plays a mean set of drums.
Risking our Kids
Original Title: Risking our Kids
Duration: 52’27’’
Producer: Judy Rymer / Bevan Childs / Jody Nunn
Director: Judy Rymer
Company: Rymer Childs Pty Ltd
Scientific field: Exact Sciences
Year: 2008
Country: Australia
Increasing childhood rates of diabetes, respiratory disease, behavioural disorders, obesity and one in four children with mental health problems lead former Australian of the Year, Fiona Stanley to predict that the next generation of Australians could have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
But this is 2008. Australia is awash with cash. Shouldn’t our children be the healthiest kids in history? Child Health Expert, Professor Fiona Stanley believes they are not.
Following Fiona Stanley and her team of scientists from their cutting edge laboratories to remote Aboriginal communities and into increasingly wealthy but unhealthy homes around Australia this film builds the case for what Fiona calls “the modernity paradox”. Can it be that our contemporary western lifestyle is delivering a toxic physical and social environment in which children are growing up sick?
After a lifetime of cutting edge scientific study into the condition of the nation’s children, Fiona passionately and eloquently explores the alarming, measurable health effects of the way we now bring up children. These are not problems without solutions, but, say Fiona, effective action needs political and community will right now.
Rodney’s Robot Revolution
Original Title: Rodney’s Robot Revolution
Duration: 60’
Producer: Isabel Perez
Director: Andrea Ulbrick
Company: Essential Media and Entertainment
Scientific field: Technologies
Year: 2008
Country: Australia
A cutting-edge science program exploring Artificial Intelligence with one of the world's greatest minds -Professor Rodney Brooks as he races to create the world's first affordable personal robot.
"In just twenty years the boundary between fantasy and reality will be rent asunder. Just five years from now that fantasy will be breached in ways that are as unimaginable to most people today as daily use of the World Wide Web ten years ago."
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