Nature (1982)
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Jay O. Sanders as Narrator (voice)
Episodes 5
Diamonds
This episode of Nature, narrated by Stockard Channing, provides us with a fascinating look into the many steps of evaluating a diamond and preparing it for public sale. Miners dredge the earth, dealers fret over valuation exams to probe the minutest details of the stones, and finally the would-be owners gasp in awe. Diamonds are their own glorious world. Get a look at how they go from mining to necklace--with plenty of human drama along the way. You may never look at jewelry the same way again.
Read MoreThe Venom Cure
Scientists have discovered that natural poisons and venoms contain chemicals that can be used to create drugs for treating everything from chronic pain to cancer.
Read MoreMurder in the Troop
A troop of chacma baboons in Zimbabwe is taken over by and forced to adjust to a new male "king." A pair of twins, along with every other young baboon in the troop, is in danger because the king must kill the females' offspring before he can mate with them.
Read MoreThe Gathering Swarms
A look at some of the planet’s great gatherings, creatures that come together in inconceivable numbers – sometimes in millions, billions, and even trillions. Included are bats and bees, locust and ants, monarch butterflies in Mexico, 17-year cicada hatches, grunion in the Sea of Cortez and carp in the Mississippi River, sardine runs off the coast of South Africa, super flocks of parakeets in the Australian Outback, mayflies on the 4th of July, and even penguins and wildebeest. Some gather to breed or to migrate, some for protection, some simply to keep warm in the cold. But in the process, a kind of super-organism is created in which individual intelligence is superseded by a collective consciousness that shares information and moves with a single purpose for the benefit of all. Check out swarm intelligence, essentially a living embodiment of social media in the natural world.
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