Customer Reviews

NOVA - Cracking the Code of Life

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a high school Biology teacher and every year I show this film to my students as an introduction to our study on Genetics and Heredity. This is a great film that illustrates how the Human Genome Project began and examines the potential ethical dilemmas as well as potential benefits the completion of this project may have for society. Rarely can I show a "science" film and have so many students afterwards agree that it really was fascinating. In fact given its 2 hour length we can't finish it in one sitting and they beg me each day "Can we finish that movie today?" This movie stimulates some fascinating conversations in my classroom, and as a teacher, who could ask for more?

I teach a college class on the Human Genome Project and always use this as my intro. It gives a good generic background in layman's terms, and then I can easily refer back to it later in class, as "remember in the movie you saw...". I recommend it for ninth grade or older audience, including adults.

This is an exceptional documentary about the mapping of the human genome and its implications for humanity. Well structured and presented in laymens terms, helps to make Cracking the Code of Life an important addition to understanding Evolution.

This movie describes the competition between J. Craig Venter (Celera) and Eric Lander (MIT) trying to decode the genome first. It is old and it does not cover all the way until they finished in 2003. It describes the big difference between government vs. private funded research and the controversies on trying to patent gene sequences, etc. It is a very informative movie and gives the foundation to understand new things related to the genome that are being discovered in the present as advances in the proteome, etc. It clears the mind to describe that although sequencing the genome has been one of the biggest discoveries of the 21th century, it is not the cure for anything, but a door for the future to cure of many diseases. By the way, I thing Eric Lander is the best speaker I ever heard and you just must see him to understand why I say that.
The only complain I have is that some of the interviews are a bit slow and the questions could have been better.

I use this video in my community college basic biology course, and it was well received by the students. I thought it was a nice introduction and/or summary of the Human Genome project. It concentrates on the competition between the academic/government team and the private group created by J. Craig Venter via the company Celera. There is also a good bit of genetic biology instruction in there, and the graphics and explanations are excellent.

Overall, a valuable part of my genetics unit. If I had any criticism, it would be that I was hoping for a bit more of the biology aspects, and not quite as much of the business and competition. But, of course, that was a huge part of the whole project, so leaving it out would not have worked either! :-)

I haven't studied biology since school days and borrowed this from local library ..

Decoding the instruction in the genes which contains maze of dense chemical molecules is a challenging exercise.We are told about the giagantic task involved in decoding the billion of molecule sequences, and the probability of it in helping find solution for all possible disease.

The DVD also highlights public/corporate reasearch ,business issues, patents by drug company hungry for profit , ethics, custom made baby, possiblity of cures by protein and its three dimensional challenges, Gene chip for early prediction of disease etc.

I felt the discussion about Celera genome buisness was too long. I was interested in the technical/biochemical? process involoved in decoding such minute instruction from a human cell, that's missing.

I would also like to suggest "Nova: Ghosts of genes" on related topic which discusses decactivation of these DNA sequence, even if they are correct (epigenetics).

I have been showing this movie to my students for several years. Thus year I couldn't find it. Amazon sent it to me quickly and at a terrific price. Great video that engages junior highers!

You have heard the term, "talking heads?" Well, this is the personification of that term. I bought this DVD for a genetics class I teach. It is a long video with a great deal of wasted time on very little.

My students hated it.

Very simple. I expected a better contribution in the field of science per se; and i found that is oriented to ethics. Regards, Madya Ayala