Perception, deception and reality
Sir David Attenborough delivers the 2003 Michael Faraday Lecture entitled: Perception, deception and reality
More details | Watch nowVision for knowledge: Knowledge for vision
An evolutionary development of perception is suggested - from passive reception to active perception to explicit conception - earlier stages being largely retained and incorporated in later species. A key is innate and then individually learned knowl....
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Professor Hopper considers the vital role that the study of plant taxonomy and systematics has played in plant science. He considers, in particular, how these fields are transforming to meet the needs of 21st Century science as we address the challen....
More details | Watch nowThe origins of flowers
Flowers are such a ubiquitous and familiar part of our modern world that it is easy to take them for granted. But as Darwin recognized, the exquisite details of their structure and appearance have been shaped by evolutionary processes over millions o....
More details | Watch nowIs the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?
Professor J.E.N Veron, the former Chief Scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and widely regarded as the world's leading authority on coral reef ecosystems, presents the effects that climate change is having on coral reefs.
More details | Watch nowWe are what we remember.
n this lecture, Eric R Kandel considers the neural systems and molecular mechanisms that contribute to learning and long-term memory and discusses how our insights into memory storage are allowing us to understand various forms of age related memory ....
More details | Watch nowDeep sea discoveries
Recent underwater images show that the deep sea realm of the British Isles is nothing like the monotonous expanse of mud that many people imagine. Spectacular coral reefs, once thought to be restricted to the tropics, are now known to occur in the ch....
More details | Watch nowEvolution and Creationism
Dr Adam Rutherford investigates the idea that the teaching of evolution is being threatened by a rise in creationism amongst religious students.nRutherford speaks to the former Director of Education at the Royal Society, Reverend Professor Michael Re....
More details | Watch nowReprogramming the code of life
The information for synthesizing the molecules that allow organisms to survive and replicate is encoded in genomic DNA. In the cell, DNA is copied to messenger RNA, and triplet codons in the messenger RNA are decoded in the process of translation to ....
More details | Watch nowThe new biology of ageing
Research into ageing has been rejuvenated by the discovery of mutations in single genes that extend the lifespan of laboratory animals. Some of the signalling pathways involved, particularly the insulin/Igf-like pathway, have effects on lifespan acro....
More details | Watch nowA molecular window into speech and language
Our capacity for complex speech and language remains one of the most intriguing aspects of being human. It has long been suspected that some answers to this enigma will be found buried within the genome. With recent advances in genetic technologies, ....
More details | Watch nowMapping memory: the brains behind remembering
Historically memory research has focussed on the hippocampus, a structure deep in the brain's temporal lobes. Damage to the hippocampus is known to have a devastating impact on the ability to form new memories as well as compromising recollection of ....
More details | Watch nowPlant and animal communication
Organisms of all kinds use signals comprising minute amounts of natural chemicals. The exploitation of semiochemicals is demonstrated with dramatic success in the management of pests and parasitic weeds in resource-poor East African cereal farming.
More details | Watch nowFrom proteins to drugs
The normal proteins which circulate in human blood are either known or presumed to have beneficial functions. However normal immunity and inflammation proteins can cause or exacerbate disease in addition to helping to resist infections.
More details | Watch nowDecoding consciousness
Everything we know about the world comes to us through our brain. Yet for each of us our own conscious mental world of thoughts and feelings is isolated and private. Despite centuries of research, language or gesture remains the only way we can disco....
More details | Watch nowDavid Attenborough on birds of paradise – Part 2
British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough talks to Nature about his obsession with birds of paradise.
More details | Watch nowThe Mother Fish
Evidence of reproduction by internal fertilization has been discovered in a large group of ancient jawed fish. Embryos discovered within fossils of these animals confirm that live birth in prehistoric times was much more widespread than previously th....
More details | Watch nowPlatypus Genome
The duck-billed platypus is a truly unique animal; a monotreme with almost no close relatives alive on earth. Scientists just had to take a look at that genome and here they discuss their findings.
More details | Watch nowWhale Evolution
The marine mammals known as cetaceans originated about 50 million years ago in south Asia, but their terrestrial ancestor is something of a mystery. Hans Thewissen and colleagues now provide the missing Eocene piece of the jigsaw.
More details | Watch nowClimate Change: Madagascar
Anjali Nayar visited a pioneering project in Madagascar that's aiming to protect one of the country's few remaining forests. It's hoped that projects like this will help curb global warming. But first, these projects must overcome the poverty and pol....
More details | Watch nowNobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan
Venki Ramakrishnan was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 'studies of the structure and function of the ribosome', the cell's protein-making factory. In this interview, he talks about his surprise at winning the prize, and what it meant to....
More details | Watch nowDavid Attenborough on Darwin – Part 1
British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough presents his views on Charles Darwin, natural selection, and how the Bible has put the natural world in peril in an exclusive interview for Nature Video.
More details | Watch nowThe Wild, Wild World of the Florida Panhandle
D. Bruce Means gives a presentation of the ecological and biological diversity of the region around the Florida panhandle. Dr. Means gave particular attention to the unique climate and environment of the area. He lists the region as one of six biol....
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