In 2011, 27-year-old Sonia Vallabh learned the results of a genetic test. She carries a mutation for a rare brain disease. Barring a medical breakthrough, she is destined to develop dementia and die in her 50s. Her fate hinges on a single change among three billion DNA bases in her genome. It seemed incredible, Sonia says, “that this one change could be so dangerous.”
AMAZON ADVENTURE tells the science adventure story of Henry Bates and his extraordinary 11-year journey through the Amazon as a young man in the 1850s who risked his life in his quest to understand and document nature. Despite being entirely self-taught, he made crucial contributions to evolutionary biology.
It’s one of the greatest mysteries in medical science: What causes Alzheimer’s disease? What can we do to stop it, or at least slow it down?
CAN ALZHEIMER’S BE STOPPED? transports viewers to the front lines of this fast-paced, life-and-death detective story. And the stakes couldn’t be higher: worldwide, 40 million people have Alzheimer’s, each being stripped of their memories and often their dignity on a poignant march that can lead to death.
From the producers of the widely-acclaimed movie “Inside Story” comes a new feature-length film, THE LUCKY SPECIALS, a highly entertaining musical drama about a band’s journey to create a new musical sound and catapult their small-time group to the big stage.
Recently re-broadcast by PBS, “Spillover” explains the science behind how viruses like Corona, Zika, SARS and Ebola are transmitted from animals to humans – often with devastating results. In the last half-century the number of spillover viruses has quadrupled, costing countless lives. Typically, people learn about outbreaks as sudden disconnected flare ups. But these viruses have much in common: where they come from, how they maim and kill, and how they can be controlled.
Here’s something you won’t find on ancestry.com: Your inner ear comes from the jawbone of a prehistoric fish. Your skin and hair can be traced to a shrew-like mammal that lived around165 million years ago. As for your trick knee — well, you can thank your primate ancestors for that.
It took more than 350 million years for the human body to take shape. How did it become the complicated, quirky and amazing machine it is today?
Diseases that were largely eradicated in the United States a generation ago – whooping cough, measles, mumps – are returning, in part because nervous parents are skipping their children’s shots. VACCINES – CALLING THE SHOTS takes viewers around the world to track epidemics, explore the science behind vaccinations, and shed light on the risks of opting out.
It’s a mystery on a global scale: five times in Earth’s past, life has been nearly extinguished, the vast majority of plant and animal species annihilated in a geologic instant. What triggered these dramatic events? And what might they tell us about the fate of our world?
JOHNSON CITY — It’s not uncommon to see a white-tailed deer herd or a doe with her fawns crossing from one side of the road to the other. For some kids, that’s as close as they get to Mother Nature, which is a travesty to Maggie Goodman, librarian at the Johnson City Library .“All they do is sit with whatever kind of game they play,” she said. “It’s sensory deprivation. I think this is an important mission, to make sure kids learn how inspiring nature is.”Goodman is taking action with “Backyard Wilderness,” the library’s latest exhibit. It opens for a two-month-long stay at 10 a.m.
The festival will close with another double bill: “Serengeti Rules” and “She Is the Ocean.” “ ‘Serengeti’ is one of the most beautiful, visually stunning documentaries I’ve ever seen,” says Rivers. “They shot in the Serengeti but also in the Aleutian Islands, the Pacific Northwest and Peru, and it’s all about our need to preserve the balance of life on Earth. It’s an extremely hopeful film. ‘She Is the Ocean’ is a wonderful documentary about nine women and their relationship to the ocean, and the second part of a trilogy from director Innesse Biohina.”
