DCMP Recent Media List

The Making Of The Fittest: Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:58:00 -0400

After the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, populations of marine stickleback fish became stranded in freshwater lakes dotted throughout the Northern Hemisphere in places of natural beauty like Alaska and British Columbia. These little fish have adapted and thrive, living permanently in a freshwater environment drastically different than the ocean. Stickleback bodies have undergone a dramatic transformation, some populations completely losing long projecting body spines that defend them from large predators. Various scientists, including David Kingsley and Michael Bell, have studied living populations of threespine sticklebacks, identified key genes and genetic switches in the evolution of body transformation, and even documented the evolutionary change over thousands of years by studying a remarkable fossil record from the site of an ancient lake ten million years ago.

The Making Of The Fittest: Natural Selection And Adaptation

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:58:00 -0400

The rock pocket mouse is a living example of Darwin’s process of natural selection. Not only is evolution happening right now everywhere around us, but adaptive changes can occur in a population with remarkable speed. This speed is essential if you’re a desert mouse living in an environment where a volcanic eruption can reverse selective pressure in nearly an instant. Features Dr. Michael Nachman, whose work in the field and in the lab has quantified the selective pressure of predators and identified the genes involved in adaptation. From ecosystem to molecules, pocket mice show the viewers how random changes in the genome can take many paths to the same adaptation—a colored coat that hides them from predators.

The Making Of The Fittest: The Birth And Death Of Genes

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:58:00 -0400

For life to survive, it must adapt and readapt to an ever-changing Earth. The discovery of the Antarctic icefish has provided an example of adaptation in an environment both hostile and abundant, where the birth of new genes and the death of old ones have played crucial roles. Researchers Bill Detrich, Christina Cheng, and Art DeVries have pinpointed the genetic changes that enable icefish to thrive without hemoglobin and red blood cells and to avoid freezing in the icy ocean.

The Making Of The Fittest: Natural Selection In Humans

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:58:00 -0400

In some parts of the world, there is an intimate connection between the infectious parasitic disease “malaria” and the genetic disease “sickle-cell anemia.” A keenly observant young man named Tony Allison, working in East Africa in the 1950s, first noticed the connection and assembled the pieces of the puzzle. His story stands as the first and one of the best understood examples of natural selection, where the selective agent, adaptive mutation, and molecule involved are known—and this is in humans to boot. The protection against malaria by the sickle-cell mutation shows how evolution does not necessarily result in the best solution imaginable but proceeds by whatever means are available.

The Day The Mesozoic Died

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:58:00 -0400

The disappearance of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period posed one of the greatest, long-standing scientific mysteries. This three-act film tells the story of the detective work that solved it. Shot on location in Italy, Spain, Texas, Colorado, and North Dakota, the film traces the uncovering of key clues that led to the discovery that an asteroid struck the Earth 66 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction of animals, plants, and even microorganisms. Each act illustrates the nature and power of the scientific method.

Where Does Energy Come From

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:52:00 -0400

Caveman Zog wonders where does energy come from. As a caveman living long ago he knows that light and heat energy can come from the sun or burning firewood. But now he travels through time to learn that in our world we have many other sources such as oil, coal, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear, falling water, wind, and solar cells, and how some of these are used in power plants to turn generators to make electricity.

Gravity, Force And Work

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:52:00 -0400

Introduces caveman Zog to Newton’s basic laws of motion. By observing objects on earth and in space, Zog learns that nothing can start moving, speed up, slow down, change direction, or stop unless a force is applied to it--even if the force is hard to see, like gravity or friction. He learns that for every force there is an equal and opposite force and that is the principle behind jet propulsion. And he learns that, scientifically, work occurs only when a force moves an object some distance.

Using Energy

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:52:00 -0400

Teaches caveman Zog that people use energy in one of two main ways: by moving heat from one place to another (conduction, convection, or radiation) or by transferring energy from one form to another by using an appliance, like a lamp or car. Appliances always waste some energy, and Zog learns why energy efficient appliances are the best choices people have today. As only a caveman can, Zog provides plenty of laughs along the way to finding clever and complete answers to elementary energy questions.

Kinetic & Potential Energy

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:52:00 -0400

Introduces caveman Zog to energy of movement and stored energy. Working with inclined planes, springs and a bouncing ball, he learns about both kinds of energy and how each kind of energy can be changed into the other. Also, he learns how chemical potential energy is used to create heat, mechanical power, light and electricity.

Robot Zot!

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:21:00 -0400

Robot Zot is a fearsome and fearless robot from a planet far away. He comes to earth to crush and conquer. He is powerful, relentless, and smaller than a toaster. Robot Zot destroys all in his path until he meets the beautiful queen. Battling with an emotion he has never felt before, Zot begins the biggest rescue of his life. Will he save his queen and conquer the earth? Based on the book by Jon Scieszka.