PBS series Your Inner Fish

[montanadave]

The new COSMOS has met with rather mixed reviews amongst members here, but there is another series, Your Inner Fish, which is currently airing on PBS affiliates which is worth a peek: http://www.pbs.org/your-inner-fish/home/

The series, based on the book of the same name by Neil Shubin, a paleontologist/paleobiologist at the University of Chicago, explores the latest research in evolutionary biology (http://www.amazon.com/Your-Inner-Fis...our+inner+fish). The narrative draws on wide range of scientific study, from geologic field research seeking to locate transitional fossils between fish and the earliest land animals to biogenetic studies isolating the common genes responsible for the expression of fins in fish and hands in humans. Here's a promo trailer:



I've recorded two segments of the 3-part series and watched the first episode tonight. I found it both fascinating and entertaining. And it was kind of fun when Shubin and the geologist assisting him in his field studies were talking about the book which provided the spark for their selection of a site in northern Canada to seek the Devonian outcrops which might yield the transitional fossil they were seeking and flipped the cover to the same geology text I used for my historical geology class during my freshman year of college in 1977.

For those interested, I would highly recommend this series.

[montanadave]

Just watched the second episode. Excellent.

If you enjoyed such series as Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man or James Burke's Connections, you will enjoy this series.

[Abraham]

Montadave,

Are the mixed reviews coming from those who insist the earth is only 5000 (or so) years old or does it come from other scientists?

Thanks

P.S. Thanks for the heads up on the series.

[montanadave]

Montadave,

Are the mixed reviews coming from those who insist the earth is only 5000 (or so) years old or does it come from other scientists?

Thanks

P.S. Thanks for the heads up on the series.

The thread on the new COSMOS is here: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...cetime-Odyssey

Most of the criticisms revolved around the "dumbing down" of the subject matter and the overuse of animation. I'm not going to open up the religious discussion, as it NEVER ends well.

[Eurodriver]

Has anything that was not alive ever became something living? Ever? Like, in all of recorded history? Has anyone ever shown that to happen?

[montanadave]

Has anything that was not alive ever became something living? Ever? Like, in all of recorded history? Has anyone ever shown that to happen?

Not to my knowledge, but there is some fascinating research taking place: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture08013.html

[Dead Man]

Has anything that was not alive ever became something living? Ever? Like, in all of recorded history? Has anyone ever shown that to happen?

Are you referring to spontaneous generation/biopoiesis?

This is one of the more complex topics in the sciences physical. Replicating organisms did not simply spontaneously spring forth from muck; it was a process as slow and involved as any other phase of terrestrial evolution.

Here's an article you might find interesting. http://www.wired.com/2009/05/ribonucleotides/

[Dead Man]

As to science shows; the better examples I've seen are not as bad as the sensationalized BBC "science" shows, but they're getting there. Complete with scripted cutaway interviews, bad acting, and obnoxious characters. And this is saying nothing for the animations, as mentioned, which are slid in like morsels to make glossy-eyed morons think they're becoming educated.

Television is arsenic to the mind.

[SteyrAUG]

Has anything that was not alive ever became something living? Ever? Like, in all of recorded history? Has anyone ever shown that to happen?

Nope, and the origin of first life is one of the really big questions. We have a reasonable understand of what happened AFTER that but that is the really big one along with where did the universe or the singularity that might have created the universe come from? Again we know a few things about what happened directly AFTER but virtually no factual evidence about where or why that happened.

[kwelz]

This looks interesting. I will have to check it out.

I am curious. Why do people always try to mix Evolution and Abiogenesis?