Customer Reviews

What Darwin Never Knew [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Watched it yesterday with great interest, even switched off the phone not to be distracted by anybody. Fascinating facts, thoroughly explored scientific paths leading to unexpected and often shocking discoveries like the one where humans have less genes than plants! Featured scientists have contagious curiosity and passion for discovery. This film should be a mandatory viewing at school: kids would grasp the facts in easy to understand manner and get inspired to explore the Nature.

This is the best DVD I have seen on the topic of Evolution. I show it after a unit on molecular genetics as I am introducing Evolution to my AP Biology class. It is both entertaining (even to HS students) and instructional from beginning to end.

I guess lots of folks would rather watch a DVD than read a book, for sure, there is no better book for the lay public than "Why Evolution
is True" by Jerry coyne. He gets into it way deeper than any video series ever could, so if you are serious about this subject, I would recommend his
book. As far as videos on the subject go, this is one of the better ones for folks who know absolutley nothing.

It does touch on most of aspects and discoveries, but like every other video, it leaves hugh gaps.
It does explain how science works and shows you alot of the evidence in a easy to understand and interesting way.

And, unlike similar videos which were produced in the USA, it does not attempt to reconcil religous dogma with undisputed scientific facts
in an almost apoligetic way just to make the subject more "acceptible" to Americans. The facts, evidence and science are presented straight forward.

Very highly recommended for the interested beginner who maybe does not have the time to read Dr Coyne's (or Dr. Dawkin's "Greatest Show on Earth").

This has enough tantalizing information to make you (hopefully) curious enough to invest more time to learn.

The scientific commuity now accepts evolution as fact, it's reality is not debated among scientists, only among the un-educated lay public.
This video is a great way to find out why that is true, and how much more we know now then we did when "Origin of Species" was first published.

Science has had 150 years to disprove Darwins theory, yet with every new discovery and every advance in analyitical technology, (the Human Genome
Project was probably the smoking gun) we can now say with utter certainty that evolution is as true to biology as atoms are to physics.

You do not have to be a science "nerd" to love this video. Very highly recommended.

Wow. I watched the two hour documentary on PBS tonight. It's an exceptional introduction to evo devo. Two of the things I learned: the human thumb and jaw are very, very important to human evolution. To find out why, get this startling DVD.

The first half is a good basic review/introduction to Darwin, his life, his theories, and what evolution is. The second half shows more details, latest research, including the quest to excavate the transitional specie (from water to land), and they found it, whoo hoo!, near the Arctic. Also to show that Darwin was right about his theories and that today's research help to substantiate it. Also a look into gene expression, turning certain parts of DNA on or off. My favorite scene is when they show how a mutation in the gorilla causing Lou Gering's muscular dystrophy resulting in a weakening of our jaw muscles may have caused a slower fusion of growth plates in our skull. Recently released '09, quality is definitely up to par as today's standards of NOVA PBS science. Amazing graphics, color details of animals, 1080p, 16:9 widescr, etc. Total: 2 hrs. Highly recommended. Thank you PBS.

We take our first baby steps to understanding our world and it's history.
This film illustrates some of those steps.
Stunning HD presentation.
By now it should be painfully obvious that evolution is fact.

However, there are 18 letters (DNA) that make humans different from chimps.
IMHO I think there might have been some manipulation at some point. Proof of that would be the real stunner...Who? What? When? Why?

I had a heart attack a year ago. Time for me is precious. I do NOT waste it now. Time watching this film is time well spent indeed!

Highly recommended.
"How the Earth was made" (History channel) is another very good DVD too.

Really interesting stuff in this video. Todays scientist take Darwins theory of evolution and improve on it. Now there is DNA evidence, they have found that there is switches that turn on and off allowing limbs to grow even in animals that don't have limbs, they just get shut off while their still in an embreo state. More proof that evolution is real. Check it out if your not scared to hear the facts of how we got here on this amazing planet.

I turned this documentary on tonight by accident and was rewarded by the most amazing drama of the human experiment. I plan to buy the DVD and add it to my DVD collection. Shame on us for not using the TV media more in the education of ourselves and our children. What a waste.

This video is nothing like the "Life" series that shows different animals in their environments - Instead this video is about genealogy and how and why all animals and humans have so much of the same genetic code and how and why it effects everything! Do not miss this, you might think it is nerdy because of the title, but you will be mesmerized and want to show this to all of your friends and family as soon as you see the first 10 minutes, you will not be able to turn it off. Excellent.

The video starts off by taking about what Darwin did know, so the viewer gets a little background before getting into genes and other things Darwin didn't know about.

DNA is covered at 3 levels. At the lowest level, there are genes that encode proteins that make body/cell parts. At the next higher level, there are DNA regions that regulate the expression of those genes: the show refers to these regulatory DNA segments as switches. And at the highest level, there are genes whose protein products throw the switches; that is, turn genes on or off by binding to the switches. And the video shows how changes to DNA at these levels can cause evolution. If people get nothing else out of the video, the topics in this paragraph should be the takehome part.

I am not doing the video justice -- a longer review would be needed to cover all the good things in this video.