Mississippi • 2018 • episode "3/3" • Earth's Great Rivers

58:59

What makes plants grow is a simple enough question, but the answer turns out to be one of the most complicated and fascinating stories in science and took over 300 years to unravel. Timothy Walker, director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden, reveals how the breakthroughs of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Chelsea gardener Phillip Miller and English naturalist John Ray created the science of botany. Between them these quirky, temperamental characters unlocked the mysteries of the plant kingdom and they began to glimpse a world where bigger, better and stronger plants could be created. Nurseryman Thomas Fairchild created the world's first artificial hybrid flower - an entirely new plant that didn't exist in nature. Today, botanists continue the search for new flowers, better crops and improved medicines to treat life-threatening diseases.

1/3 • Botany: A Blooming History • 2011 • Nature

29:16

This episode discusses the human exploration of Antarctica, in particular the mission led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, whose team died on the way back from the South Pole. It shows the scientific work in the modern human bases in Antarctica, especially Mawson Base and its observation of Adelie Penguins (partially through tracking devices).

Life in the Freezer • 2003 • Nature

43:55

During the rainy season in Africa, a herd of buffalo can create thousands of pounds of waste in a day, which would be an environmental disaster if not for the dung beetle. These extraordinary insects depend on waste to survive. They eat it, attract mates with it, and raise families in it. Although dung beetles are critical to the ecosystem, they don't have it easy. Every day, they must avoid being trampled, evade predators like bullfrogs, honey badgers, and rock monitor lizards, and rival dung beetle families desperate for the same fecal prize.

2018 • Nature

54:11

Learn how rain transforms the area into a lush grazing pasture, creating an abundance of food. Moderate weather makes it harder for predators, as prey can migrate further. With plenty of food available, mating and birthing seasons have arrived.

S1E3 • Life at the Waterhole • 2021 • Nature

55:01

The next instalment describes the move from water to land. The fish that did so may have been forced to because of drought, or chose to in search of food. Either way, they eventually evolved into amphibians. Such creatures needed two things: limbs for mobility and lungs to breathe. The coelacanth is shown as a fish with bony fins that could have developed into legs, and the lungfish is able to absorb gaseous oxygen. However, evidence of an animal that possessed both is presented in the 450 million-year-old fossilised remains of a fish called a eusthenopteron. Three groups of amphibians are explored.

6/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature

20:57

A look at what causes a pair of giraffes to turn white; why are millions of birds creating crazy patterns; why would the world's fastest land animal give up the hunt.

S1E24 • Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved • 2019 • Nature