Customer Reviews

NOVA - Origins

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The NOVA four-part series, Origins, is the perfect gift for a lay person who's interested in the evolution of earth and its unique place in the Universe. I found myself totally engrossed in the development of our planet, learning things that I never knew. I had no idea that our moon was created when another planet struck earth billions of years ago, or that the oceans on our planet were actually formed from the ice on comets that hit earth during its formative years. I didn't know that life on our planet began from the microbes that came here attached to the comets and astroids that struck earth. I didn't know that it was because of having a planet the size of Jupiter in our solar system that we were actually shielded from the vast majority of destructive astroids that travelled through our system. This enabled life on earth to continue without too many major interruptions. I didn't know that scientists have already discovered other solar systems within our galaxy that have planets and the possibility of life. And, these are just a few of the things discussed by Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson as the host and narrator of Origins. This is a show with a wealth of information geared to people of all ages with an acute interest in our planet and the universe. The only complaint I have is that some of the computer animations were showed over and over again, especially in Parts 1 & 2. Other than that, Origins is an excellent series that teaches the viewer about astronomy, biology and geology in a way thats informative and highly entertaining and never boring! A great gift for kids who are just getting started in their quest to understand the origins of life.

This package contains 2 DVD's and about 4 hours of programming. The production quality is excellent for an educational series. The producers especially loved the visual animation of the earth colliding with a Mars sized planetesimal approximately 50 million years after the formation of the earth which resulted in the moon and a larger earth, because they used the graphic 5 or 6 times on the 1st two episodes(disc 1). The Earth was spinning 4 times faster in the early days and the moon was 6 times closer. The young sun was weaker and the atmosphere had only 1% Oxygen but within a few hundred million years there was solid crust and large volumes of liquid water. 6 hour days and up to 200 foot tidal pulls on the earth's crust by the moon's gravity with each rotation. Another concept the producer's absolutely loved was that it took almost 3 billion years for single celled photo-synthetic bacteria to bring the level of Oxygen in the atmosphere up enough to turn the planet from red to blue. When you think about it, that is a pretty awesome thing ! So for 21 hours of the 24 hour day analogy, the surface of planet earth was either lifeless(the first 600 million years (3.4 hours) or dominated by these single celled photo synthetic bacteria. Only in the last 3 hours did everything else evolve. There's more on the 1st two episodes including tests to confirm exploding meteors supplying the material for the spark of 1st life on the planet due to peptide formation from the pressure of impact on amino acids. Episode 1 Disc 2 is goes into great detail on the possibility of extra-terrestrial life and episode 2 deals with the making of a detailed map of the universe 380 thousand years after the Big Bang(13.7 billion years ago) when everything had finally cooled down enough to emit visible light. There are enough details in these two discs to make you think. It seems we owe our existence to serendipity as much as to inevitability. If Jupiter was not where it is for ie.,(deflecting comets and asteroids away from Earth) life would have been either extinguished or sent back to square I too many times for us to have evolved. If the earth hadn't collided with that mars sized planetesimal to form the moon we'd have a very wobbly planet with wild temperature swings. If the earth was as small as mars it's molten core would have hardened within half a billion years and it's atmosphere swept away by the solar wind. Ironically The asteroid that got through Jupiter's shield and supposedly finished off the dinosaurs was a huge stroke of luck because it allowed mammals to evolve freely eventually leading to us. Questions remain unanswered by these episodes such as, 'Why wouldn't aliens evolve faces ?' Why wouldn't other earthlike worlds have as much time for evolution as ours did ? You figure with a gas giant shield properly placed, a similar planet with a large moon in a sunlike starred solar system like ours, the time frames would be similar. The best argument put forth on this disc in my view against other technologically proficient life in the universe is the rarity of it here,(out of 100's of millions of speices in the history of multi-cellular life only we've achieved it). We could be as rare in the universe as 1 per every galactic cluster every 500 million years or less. If it were significantly more common we probably would have heard from them by now. To throw a bone to the Creationists, our existence for all practical purposes is a miracle ! As far as 'The Big Bang' or 'The Hyper-Expansion' of a super dense, super small mass to produce everything we know. It's just a theory supported by current science. We still have no clue as to where this mass came from. That would be the unanswerable question and left to whatever your concept of God is !

It's a great 4-part NOVA mini-series about the origins of the solar system and life on earth. Scientific information is presented in an interesting and clear manner. Suitable for kids as well as grownups. Simply wonderful!

I thought this Nova program was very entertaining. It is a lively
presentation and helps answer many questions about the origins
of life. I feel it is an excellent choice for the whole family
and something that is well worth veiwing.

Beautiful images from single cell life forms to CGI representations of galaxies (and Hubble pics), plus a nicely paced presentation make this a must have for science doc fans. There are a few small areas it could explore more deeply, but for the most part it is 4 hrs of accurate and very entertaining viewing.

For those looking for a more in depth overview of why it is so difficult to actually detect other intelligences out there in the cosmos, checkout "Life Beyond Earth" by Timothy Ferris (another excellent science doc)

I showed excerpts from this series to my ninth-grade science classes and got lots of positive feedback. My own kids liked it as well. Lots of good "probable case scenarios." Will drive creationists crazy.

Dr Tyson and NOVA do a good job introducing the currently held scientific theories but it barely skims the surface and moves to fast before
going off to another topic leaving huge gaps. Many of the views of origins from the origin of the earth and moon, to the origin of life
its self are debated by scientists. With ever growing advances in technology, science is learning and discovering new things which challenge
many of the theories in this video.
This video series is simply to short and condensed to provide the viewer with a meaningful understanding of anything, what it does though, is
spark your interest in learning more.

If you want to know the science and controversies behind any of the theories presented here, you need to do some research, but this video is a
great place to start, and I recommend it mostly for young people.

Dr Tyson is a good presenter and he makes the pursuit of science interesting and exciting, just what is needed to set the spark in a young mind.

BTW, I did order my copy from Amazon, and as always, their service was flawless. They also had the best price at the time.

The "Origins" double DVD is about life in the Universe and all the related things that have to happen to make this possible. The sad fact is that we only know of one place in the Universe where life exists, namely our Earth. Finding out whether there is life elsewhere is one of the big unsolved scientific problems of our time.

If it had been easy it would have been done already. The story of the quest is an incredible one bringing together a number of strands. We need to know how the elements of life are formed, how the Earth evolved, why having a molten core is so important to protect the Earth from the Sun, why Jupiter is important to shield the Earth from meteorites to name just a few of the issues. And we sure do not know all the answers yet. Facts are facts but we also need to understand what motivates the scientists that do this work. They are humans as well spurred on not only by scientific curiosity but also by the desire for fame and the spirit of competition.

It is a great story but one that requires a great story teller. Tyson is such a person. He tells it with interviews with the scientists involved and their passions. He uses his special effects well. He exploits the twists and turns in the story never shying away from the controversies and uncertainties. It is a complex story. It not surprising it gets a bit breathless at times. It is also not surprising that some of the material will date somewhat as time goes by. But I think he does a wonderful job to draw the threads together, never hyping the science (unnecessary anyway) and making it accessible to everyone. Finally is was fun and entertaining.

Well worth the watch.

Nova's Origins has excellent content, but Mr. Tyson must be performing his narrator debut. His talent as narrator is amateurish, and is a consistent annoyance. If you can ignore this unfortunate aspect, you'll enjoy the geology.

This four-part Nova series is an engrossing and exciting learning experience. Scientists, geologists, astronomers and astro-psysicists show how to surmise our origins from the big bang, galaxies, black holes, pulsating stars, elements, planets with life and then the one celled bacteria, dna, and from that creatures of higher intelligence and curiosity.

One interesting item among many is why we study the comets and asteroids so much. It finally became clear how important they are to life on earth -both creating and changing. Creation of life and and extinctions were described much faster than imagined. The new theory on the moon's creation is fascinating - we now have moon rocks to verify part of the theory.

It is beautifully animated, written and described for a layman and each series a logical progression. How life began - and the recipe are in this series. The ultimate in wonder and easily understood by most from 10 years to 100 years. How we came to be is deeply interesting and a miracle.

A must see.