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Life Science

Related NOVA Resources

Animals | Botany | Classification | Ecology | Entomology

Evolution | Genetics | Microbiology

Animals

Ancient Creature of the Deep
Read the correspondence of the museum curator who rediscovered the Coelacanth, take a Coelacanth quiz, and examine the unusual anatomy of this ancient fish.

Animal Hospital
Find out more about pet behavior problems, review questions and answers with specialized animal behaviorists, and test your knowledge of exotic animals.

Ape Genius
Find out what separates humans from their great ape cousins, listen to and view an audio slide show on Kanzi the bonobo's language abilities, and see where the great apes are on the tree of life.

Beast of Loch Ness, The
Find out how the Loch Ness legend began, hear native Scots describe eyewitness accounts, explore the legends behind the discoveries of exotic animals, and learn how sonar works.

Brain Eater, The
Learn how science and society can intersect, read about the challenges of creating public health policy, check out food safety tips, and read two opinions about whether prions exist.

Crocodiles!
Learn why crocodiles have outlived dinosaurs, find information about each of the 23 species, discover what it's like to be a crocodile researcher, and explore crocodilian anatomy.

Curse of T. rex
Explore the cast of animals, plants, and insects that lived alongside the dinosaurs and find out how dinosaur hunters know where to dig.

Dogs and More Dogs
Discover why there are so many breeds, read about why dogs are an evolutionary success, view of photo gallery of working dogs, and match breeds with their countries of origin.

Garden of Eden
Learn how the Seychelles Islands evolved, follow the ongoing rescue of the Seychelles magpie robin, discover what causes dwarfism and gigantism in some ocean island species, and see how an atoll is formed.

Island of the Spirits
Read about the techniques used to determine the origins of the indigenous people of Hokkaido, discover cultural beliefs about island creatures, and learn how salmon migrate.

Japan's Secret Garden
View video clips that show the metamorphosis of five different insects, discover what allows bears to hibernate, learn facts about rice, and see how a rice paddy is built.

Kingdom of the Seahorse
Find out what it's like to be a seahorse researcher, learn about seahorse anatomy, view a seahorse photo gallery, and discover seven other species in which the male takes a role in caring for their young.

Kings of Camouflage
See how cuttlefish use their powers of camouflage, find out how they are tested for intelligence, explore their anatomy, and discover how some animals use trickery during mating.

Last Great Ape, The
Find out what the bonobo are like, see a slide show of bonobo expressions and learn what they mean, hear about what makes one bonobo special, and compare the differences among the four great apes.

Leopards of the Night
Discover how some animals see in the dark, learn how filmmakers used infrared light to capture leopards on tape, and try to spot creatures that specialize in hiding in plain sight.

Missing Link, The
Explore the history of life on Earth, find out what life is like as a fossil preparator, and see how random mutations in a creature population can bring about evolutionary change.

Night Creatures of the Kalahari
Find out how some animals see in the dark and learn how scientists study nocturnal and burrowing animals such as the aye-aye, the ground beetle, and the gopher tortoise.

NOVA scienceNOW: Bird Brains
Match birds to their songs and read an expert's answers to questions about bird songs and human vocal learning.

NOVA scienceNOW: First Primates
Learn about your primate heritage, watch a video on six distinguishing characteristics of primates, and read an expert's answers to questions about the first primates.

NOVA scienceNOW: Profile: Edith Widder
Take a look at images of ocean creatures that use bioluminescence and read Edie Widder's answers to questions about her life and work.

NOVA scienceNOW: Profile: Erich Jarvis
Watch the segment, learn more about neuroscientist Erich Jarvis, examine a rotating model of a bird brain, and read answers to questions about bird neuroscience.

Ocean Animal Emergency
Reflect with producer Doug Hamilton on how our views regarding animal protection are shaped by our backgrounds and where we live.

Orchid Hunter
View photographs and learn facts about 15 species of orchids, meet 10 amateur scientists who have made substantial contributions to a variety of disciplines, and classify a bear, an orchid, and a sea cucumber.

Perfect Pearl, The
Read theories behind the oyster's decline in Japan's Ago Bay, find out the role the pearl has played in history, learn how freshwater pearls are cultured, and estimate the number pearls in a treasure chest.

Rat Attack
Learn about the experiences producer Jeremy Zipple encountered while filming "Rat Attack," find out about different types of infanticide, and read an interview that describes more about the Melocanna baccifera bamboo cycle.

Secrets of the Crocodile Caves
View panoramas of Ankarana, learn about the legends of Madagascar, find a who's who of crocodile species, and explore the anatomy of a crocodile.

Shark Attack!
Discover a shark's six senses and find out how they are used to hunt prey and learn facts about shark evolution, life cycle, features, and behavior.

Tales From the Hive
Climb inside a bee's nest to learn about its physical and social infrastructure, learn how the program's producers filmed bees in flight, find out facts about bees, and see how bees communicate.

Volcanoes of the Deep
Learn how researchers extracted black smoker chimneys from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, read about deep-ocean discoveries, and explore the lives and ecology of creatures that thrive far below the ocean surface.

Wild Wolves
Listen to a wolf's howl, learn how wolves became extinct, read about their reintroduction to the United States, and take a quiz that explores what wolves and dogs have in common.

Botany

Curse of T. rex
Explore the cast of animals, plants, and insects that lived alongside the dinosaurs and find out how dinosaur hunters know where to dig.

Deep Sea Invasion
Follow the spread of Caulerpa taxifolia as it colonizes new waters, explore the impact of invading species, and play a game in which you connect an invader to the damage it has caused.

First Flower
Read about the experiences of a modern-day plant hunter, see a slide show of some common garden flowers that originated in China, compare a modern flowering plant to the Archaefructus fossil, and match seven plants with their pollinators.

Harvest of Fear
Explore some of the issues in genetic engineering, compare the traditional method of selective breeding to one of the latest transgenic methods, and take a peek at what GM foods might appear on grocery shelves.

Japan's Secret Garden
View video clips that show the metamorphosis of five different insects, discover what allows bears to hibernate, learn facts about rice, and see how a rice paddy is built.

Classification

No Related NOVA Resources are available in the Classification category. See Find by Subject or Find by Title for other resource categories.

Ecology

Crocodiles!
Learn why crocodiles have outlived dinosaurs, find information about each of the 23 species, discover what it's like to be a crocodile researcher, and explore crocodilian anatomy.

Fire Wars
Review monthly global fire maps for the year 2000, find out why fire is essential to some plants and animals, explore a firefighter's workaday wardrobe, learn the basics of combustion, and operate a wildfire simulator.

Hawaii Born of Fire
Find out the ecological and evolutionary effect of frequent lava flows, learn details about lava, and read one researcher's findings regarding the relatedness of 1,000 species of flies.

Island of the Spirits
Read about the techniques used to determine the origins of the indigenous people of Hokkaido, discover cultural beliefs about island creatures, and learn how salmon migrate.

Japan's Secret Garden
View video clips that show the metamorphosis of five different insects, discover what allows bears to hibernate, learn facts about rice, and see how a rice paddy is built.

Lord of the Ants
Read an excerpt from Wilson's autobiography about how his boyhood explorations and his fondness of snakes led to his career, and learn about some of Wilson's most significant contributions in brief descriptions of 12 of his books.

Methuselah Tree
Learn about the survival strategies of the bristlecone pine, view panoramas of California's White Mountains, investigate the process of photosynthesis, and build a tree-ring timeline.

Ocean Animal Emergency
Reflect with producer Doug Hamilton on how our views regarding animal protection are shaped by our backgrounds and where we live.

Secrets of the Crocodile Caves
View panoramas of Ankarana, learn about the legends of Madagascar, find a who's who of crocodile species, and explore the anatomy of a crocodile.

Shark Attack!
Discover a shark's six senses and find out how they are used to hunt prey and learn facts about shark evolution, life cycle, features, and behavior.

Volcano Above the Clouds
Find out how Earth's glaciers are holding up, see a map of the planet's ecological zones, learn about each of the tallest summits on the seven continents, and discover why mountains make their own weather.

Wild Wolves
Listen to a wolf's howl, learn how wolves became extinct, read about their reintroduction to the United States, and take a quiz that explores what wolves and dogs have in common.

World in the Balance
Find the latest population figures, see how the world�s population has grown, learn about how rising populations affect the environment, test your understanding of population trends, read interviews with experts, discover ways to get involved, and more.

Entomology

Curse of T. rex
Explore the cast of animals, plants, and insects that lived alongside the dinosaurs and find out how dinosaur hunters know where to dig.

Japan's Secret Garden
View video clips that show the metamorphosis of five different insects, discover what allows bears to hibernate, learn facts about rice, and see how a rice paddy is built.

Jewel of the Earth
Find out what is so compelling about insects in amber, follow a bee's journey from when it first became trapped in amber millions of years ago until now, see photos of amber inclusions, and learn where amber can be found worldwide.

Master of the Killer Ants
Learn about edible bugs, read about the queen's role in social colonies, and find out more about the Mofu tribe's relationship with the jaglavak ant.

The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies
Learn in an interview with director Nick de Pencier what compelled him to make a film about monarchs, how he captured the butterflies on film, and what some of his biggest challenges and rewards were.

Evolution

Alien From Earth
Find out what causes gigantism and dwarfism among species on oceanic islands such as Flores, view a slide show of the brains of several members of the hominid family, and learn how experts believe the hobbit's brain measures up.

Ancient Creature of the Deep
Read the correspondence of the museum curator who rediscovered the Coelacanth, take a Coelacanth quiz, and examine the unusual anatomy of this ancient fish.

Boldest Hoax, The
Learn more about the program, access a teacher's guide, find additional resources, and read the program transcript.

Dogs and More Dogs
Discover why there are so many breeds, read about why dogs are an evolutionary success, view of photo gallery of working dogs, and match breeds with their countries of origin.

Evolution: Darwin's Dangerous Idea
Delve into Darwin's diary, consider the history of eugenics and modern genetic research, follow the evolutionary path of one species of bird, and find questions and answers about evolution topics.

Evolution: Extinction!
Consider whether humans are in the midst of a modern mass extinction, explore hypotheses and evidence for various theories for why dinosaurs vanished, and find information on the basic questions about evolution.

Evolution: Great Transformations
Explore an illustrated timeline of events in geologic history, consider the concept of "intelligent design," build a family tree of related organisms, and find answers to questions about evolution.

Evolution: The Evolutionary Arms Race
Learn what can be done about antibiotic resistance, see how one microbe replicates over the course of one minute, discover species evolution on the Great Barrier Reef, and find answers to basic evolution questions.

Evolution: The Mind's Big Bang
Scan a homonid family tree timeline, consider whether intelligent life is inevitable, reflect on the implications of genetic advances, check out the remains of early humans, and learn about questions and answers regarding evolution topics.

Evolution: What About God?
Read viewpoints regarding whether the conflict between evolution and religion can be resolved, explore a timeline from the 1600s to today that investigates the conflicts over evolution, and investigate questions and answers on this much-debated topic.

Evolution: Why Sex?
Explore the role evolution plays in shaping a person's taste in a mate, learn about sexual vs. asexual reproduction, investigate guppy color variation, choose evolutionary mates for five animals, and bone up on questions and answers about evolution.

Family That Walks on All Fours
Read one scientist's account of working with the family, consider a geneticist's ideas about what underlies the handwalkers' condition, compare skeletons to learn what makes upright walking possible, and brush up on leading theories of bipedilism.

Four-Winged Dinosaur, The
Read more about why the origin of flight is so controversial, take a look at fossils of animals and plants that existed alongside Microraptor, compare the skeletons of Microraptorand its relatives, and conduct your own virtual wind-tunnel experiment.

Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
Read arguments for intelligent design and evolution, find out more about the nature of science, hear the judge read key findings from the case, see examples of transitional fossils, read about some of Darwin's pioneering conjectures, and more.

Missing Link, The
Explore the history of life on Earth, find out what life is like as a fossil preparator, and see how random mutations in a creature population can bring about evolutionary change.

Neanderthals on Trial
Rotate and compare the casts of a Neanderthal and an early modern human, learn about mitochondrial DNA, and make deductions about bones and artifacts uncovered at a virtual dig.

NOVA scienceNOW: Artificial Life
Watch the segment, make a simple cartoon microbe, read what the head of the Human Genome Project thinks about generating life in the lab, and read answers to questions about artificial life.

NOVA scienceNOW: First Primates
Learn about your primate heritage, watch a video on six distinguishing characteristics of primates, and read an expert's answers to questions about the first primates.

NOVA scienceNOW: Little People of Flores
Watch the segment, compare the brain of Homo floresiensis with a chimp's and a modern human's, and read what one evolutionary biologist thinks about the micropygmies.

Odyssey of Life, Part I -- The Ultimate Journey
Learn about microphotography technology, watch time-lapse sequences of growing embryos, read a debate on the question "How did we get here?", and discover creatures that may be in a house and human body.

Origins: Back to the Beginning
Find out how life could have started, read about the latest discoveries in origins research, use raw data to assemble the Eagle Nebula image, insert your own values into the Drake Equation, decode cosmic spectra, and more.

Origins: Earth is Born
Find out how life could have started, read about the latest discoveries in origins research, use raw data to assemble the Eagle Nebula image, insert your own values into the Drake Equation, decode cosmic spectra, and more.

Origins: How Life Began
Find out how life could have started, read about the latest discoveries in origins research, use raw data to assemble the Eagle Nebula image, insert your own values into the Drake Equation, decode cosmic spectra, and more.

Origins: Where are the Aliens?
Find out how life could have started, read about the latest discoveries in origins research, use raw data to assemble the Eagle Nebula image, insert your own values into the Drake Equation, decode cosmic spectra, and more.

Secrets of the Crocodile Caves
View panoramas of Ankarana, learn about the legends of Madagascar, find a who's who of crocodile species, and explore the anatomy of a crocodile.

Genetics

Cracking the Code of Life
Explore a stretch of code, learn how to sequence DNA, journey into the depths of DNA, consider the nature vs. nurture debate, read about heredity, take a genetic survey, and watch the program online.

Dogs and More Dogs
Discover why there are so many breeds, read about why dogs are an evolutionary success, view of photo gallery of working dogs, and match breeds with their countries of origin.

Ghost in Your Genes
Learn why epigenetic changes accumulate with age, find out how fruit fly genes get expressed during development, and read answers to questions about epigenetics.

Killer's Trail, The
Read a chronology of the Sam Sheppard case, learn about a laser-imaging system that produces 3-D pictures of objects, see a list of inmates cleared by DNA, and create a virtual DNA fingerprint.

Life's Greatest Miracle
Learn about stem cells and why they are important, explore how meiosis and mitosis work, see how sex is determined, find out pregnancy screening techniques, and watch the program online.

Lost Tribes of Israel
Follow the trail of the Lost Tribes, learn about the Lemba, explore the Great Zimbabwe, and analyze Y-chromosome data to properly place men on a males-only family tree.

NOVA scienceNOW: Aging
Watch the segment, learn what role the sirtuin gene may play in aging, and read answers to questions about aging.

NOVA scienceNOW: Killer Microbe
Learn how Staphylococcus aureus strains have adapted to antibiotics, see three of history's worst bacterial outbreaks, and read an expert's answers to questions about Iraqibacter and multidrug-resistant pathogens.

NOVA scienceNOW: Personal DNA Testing
Read about what DNA testing can reveal, learn how to extract your own DNA, hear about how scientists approach uncertainty and bad news, find out about the personal genome project, and more.

NOVA scienceNOW: Stem Cells Breakthrough
Cast your vote on whether embryonic stem cells should be created through cloning, read recent stories on stem cell research, and take a look at an expert's answers to questions about stem cell research.

Science Odyssey, A: Bigger, Better, Faster
Compare what was known in 1900 to today, quiz some of the 20th century's prominent scientists in a game-show format, explore a databank of discoveries, or try your hand at eight interactive activities.

Science Odyssey, A: In Search of Ourselves
Compare what was known in 1900 to today, quiz some of the 20th century's prominent scientists in a game-show format, explore a databank of discoveries, or try your hand at eight interactive activities.

Science Odyssey, A: Matters of Life and Death
Compare what was known in 1900 to today, quiz some of the 20th century's prominent scientists in a game-show format, explore a databank of discoveries, or try your hand at eight interactive activities.

Science Odyssey, A: Mysteries of the Universe
Compare what was known in 1900 to today, quiz some of the 20th century's prominent scientists in a game-show format, explore a databank of discoveries, or try your hand at eight interactive activities.

Science Odyssey, A: Origins
Compare what was known in 1900 to today, quiz some of the 20th century's prominent scientists in a game-show format, explore a databank of discoveries, or try out eight interactive activities.

Secret of Photo 51
Learn more about Rosalind Franklin, view a slideshow of molecules imaged by X-ray diffraction, examine Photo 51 in detail, and travel down to the atomic level of DNA.

Microbiology

Bioterror
Learn about eight lethal biological agents, pinpoint biological weapons programs worldwide, explore a timeline of biowarfare, and discover how vaccines are made.

Brain Eater, The
Learn how science and society can intersect, read about the challenges of creating public health policy, check out food safety tips, and read two opinions about whether prions exist.

Cancer Warrior
Watch a video chronicle of cancer growth and angiogenesis, learn how clinical trials are designed, follow the evolution of a malignant tumor, and view the program online.

Eighteen Ways to Make a Baby
Learn the 18-plus ways to make a baby, explore issues about cloning, find out how fertility changes through life's stages, and discover how meiosis and mitosis work in an animated comparison of the two.

Killer Disease on Campus
Meet a survivor of meningitis, follow the progression of meningococcal bacteria through the bloodstream, and use different techniques to create six vaccines in a virtual laboratory.

Most Dangerous Woman in America, The
Read a letter Mary Mallon wrote in 1909, consider the role public health officials played in Mallon�s case, follow a time line of quarantine, and use basic field epidemiology methods to trace a mysterious illness to its source.

Mysterious Life of Caves
Learn more about extremophile microbes, read a first-person account of a descent into Lechuguilla, view 12 pictures of the cave, and investigate four causes of cave formation.

NOVA scienceNOW: Obesity
Watch the segment, learn more about weight loss and research about leptin, and read answers to questions about the weight loss research.

NOVA scienceNOW: Profile: Judah Folkman
Read an interview with Judah Folkman, see how cancerous tumors recruit their own blood supply, and read expert's answers to questions about the late Dr. Folkman and current angiogenesis studies.

NOVA scienceNOW: Stem Cells
Watch the segment, take a poll whether to allow cloning for stem cell research, find out how egg cells can be cloned to create embryonic stem cells, and read science news stories about stem cells.

Surviving AIDS
Investigate the growth and magnitude of the AIDS epidemic, find out where the latest research is heading, watch a video clip of the life cycle of HIV, and learn how the immune system works.

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