Galapagos : Born Of Fire (BBC Documentary)

EvolutionDocumentary

Broadcast (2007) With spectacular cinematography from land, sea and air, and blending rugged volcanic landscapes with intimate animal behaviour, this ambitious series from the BBC's Natural History Unit brings this remarkable archipelago to captivating life. This opening episode chronicles the many fascinating stages of the island chain's existence, and reveals how creatures have developed enterprising ways of dealing with life on this restless Pacific outpost. Witness the dramatic eruption of the largest of all the Galapagos volcanoes, Sierra Negra, blowing smoke and ash seven miles into the sky; marine iguanas, the worlds only seagoing lizards, leaping off lava cliffs into treacherous surf; Galapagos giant tortoises, the largest on Earth, being groomed by Darwin's finches, and the magical courtship display of the waved albatross. Tilda Swinton is the narrator.

Against a backdrop of smouldering volcanoes, brittle lava fields, fields of giant cactus and wave pounded shores, witness blue footed boobies plunge diving in to treacherous waters, sea lions surfing, the beautiful courtship dance of the waved albatross, Darwin's finches as crafty tool users and hawks hunting marine iguanas. Galapagos is unlike any other place on Earth. The archipelago is made up of thirteen main islands, they sit astride the equator, almost a thousand kilometres off the coast of South America, and are connected directly to the heart of the planet. The product of a volcanic hotspot, from the moment they are born, the islands are carried on a remarkable millenia long journey before sinking back beneath the waves.

The Galapagos islands are a fascinating microcosm of our planet and home to some of the most astonishing creatures found anywhere on Earth: iguanas swim the sea like dragons, short eared owls stalk petrels by day and 500 pound giant tortoises bellow over lava fields. One thousand kilometres due west of Ecuador, where four major ocean currents unite, vast undersea volcanoes break the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Early explorers described these otherworldly islands as "Las Encantadas" "the Enchanted Islands". In time they became known as Galapagos, the islands of the Tortoises. Darwin described them as a "world within itself".

Using spectacular HiDefinition cinematography from land, sea and air, and blending dramatic landscapes with intimate animal behaviour, drama reconstruction and stunning satellite imagery, this ambitious series presents the most complete portrait ever of these fascinating islands. Galapagos reveals how wildlife has found the most enterprising ways to get to grips with this restless volcanic outpost, why these islands are such a fascinating showcase for evolution, and the profound forces that influence the delicate balance of life.

TEDxHamburg - Elisabet Sahtouris - Celebrating Crisis

http://tedxhamburg.de/

Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD is an internationally known evolution biologist, futurist, author, professor and business consultant, a member of the World Wisdom Council and a fellow of the World Business Academy. After a post-doctoral NIH fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, she taught at UMass and MIT, worked on the NOVA/Horizon TV series and was a UN consultant on indigenous peoples. Born in the US, she lived extensively in Canada, Greece and the Peruvian Andes, discovering solutions to social and economic problems in Earth’s ecosystems and indigenous sciences, and now resides in Spain. Her venues have included The World Bank, EPA, Boeing, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Tokyo Dome Stadium, Australian and Netherlands National Govts, Sao Paulo’s leading business schools, University of Malaya, State of the World Forums (NY, San Francisco and Brasil) and World Parliaments of Religion. Her books include EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution; A Walk Through Time: from Stardust to Us and Biology Revisioned (with Willis Harman). See www.sahtouris.com

Source: http://tedxhamburg.de/2011/04/elisabet-sahtouris/

Harvey Fineberg: Are we ready for neo-evolution?

http://www.ted.com

Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg shows us three paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: to stop evolving completely, to evolve naturally -- or to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, to make ourselves smarter, faster, better. Neo-evolution is within our grasp. What will we do with it?

BBC - Galápagos Ep. 01: Nascido do Fogo

juniorbrolini

O lugar que inspirou a teoria da evolução de Darwin. As ilhas Galapagos são um laboratório vivo, um cinturão geológico que gerou e viu morrer inúmeras espécies de plantas e animais. As ilhas ocidentais ascendem no mar dando mais chances a vida enquanto as ilhas orientais afundam garantindo a morte de vários seres e plantas. Entre os dois existem as ilhas centrais, fertéis e imponentes elas dão abrigo a um sem número de seres vivos. Em nenhum outro lugar na terra encontramos o ciclo da via e da morte tão aparente quanto aqui. Veja os ciclos se desdobrando perante seu olhos nesta fantástica filmagem feita em alta definição HD pela BBC e o National Geographic Channel.

The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8866568816093486330

The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey

Around 60,000 years ago, a man--identical to us in all important respects--lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races?

Showing how the secrets about our ancestors are hidden in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. We now know not only where our ancestors lived but who they fought, loved, and influenced.

Informed by this new science, The Journey of Man is replete with astonishing information. Wells tells us that we can trace our origins back to a single Adam and Eve, but that Eve came first by some 80,000 years. We hear how the male Y-chromosome has been used to trace the spread of humanity from Africa into Eurasia, why differing racial types emerged when mountain ranges split population groups, and that the San Bushmen of the Kalahari have some of the oldest genetic markers in the world. We learn, finally with absolute certainty, that Neanderthals are not our ancestors and that the entire genetic diversity of Native Americans can be accounted for by just ten individuals.

It is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind--as well as an accessible look at the analysis of human genetics that is giving us definitive answers to questions we have asked for centuries, questions now more compelling than ever.

The Collapse of Intelligent Design:Kenneth R. Miller Lecture

The Collapse of Intelligent Design: Will the Next Monkey Trial be in Ohio? Kenneth R. Miller's presentation on Intelligent Design. Recorded January 3, 2006 in Strosacker auditorium. Kenneth R. Miller is the Professor of Biology Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence at Brown University.

Earth Evolution: The Formation of Our Planet

Joaquin Ruiz, Dean of the College of Science and Professor of Geosciences, tells the story of how the Earth evolved from its fiery beginnings to the habitable planet we all enjoy.

Evolution Lecture Series

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What Will the Creationists Do Next?

Eugenie C. Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc. explores how the failure of Intelligent Design to survive a legal test of its constitutionality led it to evolve new strategies which call for teaching the "strengths and weaknesses of evolution" or the "critical analysis of evolution" which are creationism in disguise.

Richard Dawkins interviews Daniel Dennett for "The Genius of Charles Darwin", the Channel 4 UK TV program which won British Broadcasting Awards' "Best Documentary Series" of 2008.

The Scientists above are the respondents in the sub-category dealing with the controversy of evolution vs. creationism.

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Insidious Creationism:

the intellectual abuse of children through creationist books, comics and literature

James Williams, University of Sussex, England

The science education curriculum in the UK does not fully engage students with the theory of evolution until late in their schooling (ages 14-16). Creationists expend a lot of time, money and energy influencing primary age children with comic books, magazines and videos that contain creation pseudoscience with some elements of real science. By promoting their tales of vegetarian T. rex in the garden of Eden and on Noah’s ark as factual and the mixing of real science with pseudoscience, creationist misconceptions are embedded in children’s minds at an early age. Research shows that established misconceptions are difficult to overcome. This wilful distortion of real science in favour of pseudoscience is nothing less than intellectual abuse. While creationists have a right to publish and voice their views, no matter how far from real science they may be, the science education community must respond by introducing evolution and the reality of how life developed and diversified much earlier in the curriculum to combat the establishment of creationist misconceptions.

Top 25 Creationist Fallacies

What Will the Creationists Do Next?

Eugenie C. Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc. explores how the failure of Intelligent Design to survive a legal test of its constitutionality led it to evolve new strategies which call for teaching the "strengths and weaknesses of evolution" or the "critical analysis of evolution" which are creationism in disguise.
Watch this program:
UCTV / UCSD-TV / YouTube

The God Delusion

LIVERPOOL 2008

See the webcast of this lecture

When Professor Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene in 1976, it became an immediate international bestseller. Its sequel, The Extended Phenotype, was then followed by The Blind Watchmaker, River out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, A Devil’s Chaplain, The Ancestor’s Tale and his most recent publication, The God Delusion.

His many bestselling books have been influential in bringing understanding of evolutionary theory to a mass audience, but it is The God Delusion that has perhaps courted the most controversy, exploring his opinion that belief in God is both illogical and harmful to society.

Professor Dawkins has won several literary and scientific awards including the Royal Society of Literature Award, the Los Angeles Times Prize and the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society.

"The African Evidence for the Origins

of Modern Human Behavior"

Curtis Marean, Paleoanthropologist; Professor, Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution & Social Change, Arizona State University at Tempe

Curtis Marean will be presenting his research on archaeological studies of the earliest Homo sapiens found to date in South Africa, and discussing the broader issue of the origins of modern humans—where it happened, why it happened, and why it makes the coastline of South Africa particularly significant.

2008 Nobel Conference Gustavus Adolphus College

Origin of Life

The 2007 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium Series

Watch webcast

How do scientists explain the emergence of life four billion years ago? The short answer is they can't - yet. The origin of life is a hotly contested scientific field with many rival theories vying for public attention - from primordial soup to self-organizing metabolic networks in potential habitats ranging from the surfaces of minerals to deep-sea hydrothermal vents below the Earth's surface to the surface of Mars. This year's Symposium brings together leading scientific experts with differing views on the origin of life to debate a question that has been asked for millennia.

Symposium participants

EVOS - Evolutionary Studies Program

Evolution Institute Workshop on Early Childhood Education

Evolutionary theory is profoundly relevant to understanding and improving the human condition but has virtually no impact on public policy. The Evolution Institute was created to solve this problem, providing a conduit from the world of evolutionary science to the world of public policy for a diversity of issues vital to our welfare.

Early childhood education is an example of a system that isn't working, despite everyone's best intentions. Some of the foremost authorities on child development and education are already stressing the need for an evolutionary perspective. The Evolution Institute brought them together in a workshop that was held at the University of Miami on November 14-16, 2008, followed by a public roundtable discussion on November 17, 2008.

The workshop presentations provide a vivid account of why evolutionary theory is needed to address public policy issues, in general and for the specific topic of early childhood education. The roundtable discussion shows how evolution can be presented in a positive way to the general public, swiftly moving beyond the sterile debates of the past. The bibliography provides access to the scientific literature for those who wish to deepen their understanding.

The Evolution Institute is continuing to work with the participants to publicize and implement the recommendations of the workshop. We are also developing additional focal topics to address from an evolutionary perspective.

We thank the Humanists of Florida Association, the University of Miami, and the private donors who partnered with the Evolution Institute to make its first workshop possible. Please contact David Sloan Wilson or Jerry Lieberman for additional information about the Evolution Institute, our current focus on early childhood education, or future focal topics.

Darwin's Legacy | Lecture 1

Introductory lecture

by William Durham for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200).

Professor Durham provides an overview of the course; Professor Robert Siegel touches upon "Darwin's Own Evolution;" Professor Durham returns for a talk on "Darwin's Data;" and the lecture concludes with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Lynn Rothschild.

Stanford Channel on YouTube

From Butterflies to Humans

HHMI 2005 Holiday Lectures (realplayer)

Sean B. Carroll

The story of animal evolution is marked by key innovations such as limbs for walking on land, wings for flight, and color patterns for advertising or concealment. How do new traits arise? How has the great diversity of butterflies, fish, mammals, and other animals evolved? The invention of insect wings and the evolution of their color patterns are beautiful models of the origin of novelty and the evolution of diversity. This lecture explores how new patterns evolve when "old" genes learn new tricks.

Old genes learning new tricks also applies to our own species and the evolution of traits that distinguish us from earlier hominids and other apes: our big brain, bipedal locomotion, and speech and language. The complete picture of human evolution involves new information emerging from the fossil record, genetics, comparative physiology, and developmental biology. Despite immense advances in evidence and understanding, there remains a societal struggle with the acceptance of our biological history and the evolutionary process, the roots of which are discussed in this lecture.
HHMI's BioInteractive - Evolution Lectures

Sean B. Carroll · Biography