The Chemistry of Life: Milestones in Genetics
Cells are, in a sense, just tiny bags of chemicals—so what “instructs” them to divide and function? This program shows how biologists addressed the question during the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting with Friedrich Miescher’s discovery of ...
Hidden kingdom: early discoveries in cell science
It was a businessman, not a trained scientist, who first gained entry to the cryptic world of cells. This program relates the early history of microbiology and genetics, beginning with the story of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a 17th-century Dutch texti...
Life Expectancy: Geography as Destiny
Give students a context in which to study the world’s widely varying life expectancy statistics. Focusing discussion on economic and cultural factors, this program examines dramatic discrepancies between life spans in the United States, Japan, Rus...
Fighting Skin Cancer and Brain Tumors with New Methods
Two of the most aggressive and deadly forms of cancer may soon become the targets of powerful drugs that work in tandem with the body’s own immune system. This program explores recent research in the development of biochemical weapons to fight bra...
Cell: The Spark of Life
From hydras to humans, every organism on Earth can trace its ancestry back to the first primitive cell. Will biotechnology one day create a cell outside of that family tree? This program looks at 21st-century genetic science and its search for the s...