James Madison University
Libraries and Educational Technologies

Alien Invasion

https://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_saf004.xml

Describes how the accidental or purposeful introduction of alien species into new areas affects that environment.

Going to Extremes

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_saf027.xml

Meet researchers and scientists exploring the inner workings of the mind, using a combination of technology and psychological studies to find out how the human brain works.

Life's Really Big Questions

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_saf033.xml

See how our hands set us free and play baseball, how an ancient telescope found an alien world, see a baby robot that may grow up without needing us, and learn why Noah's flood may have been a snowball. Hear the big questions that scientists are asking.

Monkey Trial

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_amx046.xml

The trial of John Scopes, a Tennessee biology teacher arrested in 1925 for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. The Scopes trial was America's first major media event.

Prime Time Primates

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_saf055.xml

Alan Alda takes the viewer from a Rhesus monkey preserve on a Puerto Rican Island to the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta to the Duke University lemur sanctuary to demonstrate behavioral links between all species of primates, including humans. Primate researchers such as Frans de Waal are interviewed, and species such as lemurs, chimpanzees, and humans are shown demonstrating various qualities such as learning skills, aggression, and sharing.

Science in Paradise

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_saf045.xml

Host Alan Alda accompanies scientists in the Carribean tracking hawksbill turtles as part of a conservation project and working to save coral reefs afflicted with an unexpected disease. He visits Trinidad and learns to play that country's native instrument -- the steel pan -- and uncovers science stories in island sites from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to the Soufriere Hill Volcano on the island of Monserrat.

Triumph of Life: Volume 1 - The Four Billion Year War

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_nat200-1.xml

In a battle for survival that lasts 4 billion years, the odds against any one species are incredibly long. And yet, life on the planet is overwhelmingly rich and diverse. Exploring this paradox, this program takes a penetrating look at the process of evolution and the basic force behind it - genes.

Triumph of Life: Volume 2 - The Mating Game

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_nat200-2.xml

Sex is the key to the immortality of genes, and any tactic necessary will be deployed in the cause of reproduction - even if its suicidal to the participant. This episode explores many of the most ingenious, complex and dramatic methods of ensuring the continuation of a species.

Triumph of Life: Volume 3 - The Eternal Arms Race

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_nat200-3.xml

Since the dawn of life, an evolutionary arms race has imbued predator and prey with increasingly sophisticated weaponry. Teeth and jaws are merely the low-tech side of the struggle. Bats have evolved sonar, and moths have devised a way to jam it; squid create smoke screens, caterpillars concoct poisons and the race escalates from eon to eon.

Triumph of Life: Volume 4 - Winning Teams

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_nat200-4.xml

Life may be a contest in which only the fittest individuals survive, but cooperation has also played a key role in evolution. WINNING TEAMS takes a close look at the alliances that animals have forged -- with others of their own kind and very different organisms -- in a bid to stay alive. In fact, teamwork occurs everywhere, from flocks of birds and herds of wildebeest to colonies of ants and termites.

Triumph of Life: Volume 5 - Brain Power

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_nat200-5.xml

The growing study of animal intelligence - from the use of tools by chimps to the apparent ability of many species to communicate among themselves in ingenious way - casts a vibrant new light on the role of the mind in evolution. Brain power, in fact, has led to some to the most fascinating innovations in the evolutionary arms race.

Triumph of Life: Volume 6 - The Survivors

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=pbs_nat200-6.xml

Approximately 65 million years ago, a comet's collision with Earth ended the age of the dinosaur through no fault of the animals' gene machines. But with extinction comes new life, as survivors evolve to seize the territory left vacant by the vanquished. This concluding episode explores the factors that make winners and losers in the game of life, and poses the question: who will triumph in the long run?

How to Build a Human: The Secret of Sex

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh30399.xml

One of a four-part series presenting research and breakthroughs in the field of human genetics. This segment examines aspects of reproduction, as well as what being male or female means at the cellular level. Dr. Roy Levin, a reproductive physiologist, uses an FMRI scanner to glean surprising images from a couple having intercourse. Startling physiological effects are seen over a mere six months in a woman who begins testosterone therapy. Experts include Marc Breedlove, Professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University; Dr. Peter Goodfellow, authority on the Y chromosome; Professor John Burn, clinical geneticist at Newcastle University; Dr. John Manning, leading specialist on testosterone; and Dr. Melissa Hines, Professor of Psychology at City University who has studied testosterone's influence on how children play.

Gaia Hypothesis, The

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh08129.xml

James Lovelock details the development and evolution of his Gaia hypothesis and through the use of computer graphics and animation explains the Daisyworld climatic prototype.

Alfred Kinsey: Social Science in America's Bedroom

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh29835.xml

exuality was the last uncharted realm of social science until a controversial biology professor named Alfred Kinsey walked into America's bedroom and turned on the light. In this program, John Bancroft, director of The Kinsey Institute; James H. Jones, author of Alfred Kinsey : A Public/Private Life; and Kinsey's former colleague Paul Gebhard engage in a thoughtful assessment of Kensey's findings--data weakened, however, by the makeup of Kinsey's sample population, his own sexual experiences, and his desire to see a more inclusive ethic of tolerance in the U.S. Nonetheless, as a tool of social reform, Kinsey's work succeeded in opening a channel in the public discourse on a hitherto taboo subject.

Crater of Death

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh08430.xml

In 1978, physicist Walter Alvarez put forward the theory that a meteorite caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. This program examines evidence that both supports and contradicts Alvarez's theory.

Science of Cloning, The

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh07043.xml

In July 1996, Dr. Ian Wilmut used an electric charge to bring dormant cells to life, and from these cells a sheep named Dolly--the world's first cloned mammal--was created. This program begins by tracing the history of such genetic reproduction technology as in vitro fertilization, parthenogenosis, and genetic therapy--antecedents of modern cloning practices. Computer graphics then illustrate the biomechanics of cloning. Cloning's implications for biology, medicine, and agriculture are discussed. Harvard neurobiologist Dr. Lisa Geller discusses the possible role of cloning in the prevention of extinction, the creation of "super" breeds of animals, the curing of disease, and the growth of human organs needed for transplant.

Stephen Jay Gould

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh05083.xml

An interview with Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist and popular writer on evolutionary biology.

Creationist Argument, The

http://did.cit.jmu.edu/default.aspx?direct=image&id=31&res=ffh03349.xml

Luther Sunderland presents what he considers scientific rather than philosophical or religious inconsistencies in Darwin's theory of evolution.