Science & Research Videos - The Documentary Network

The Future of Cities

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 10:39:19 +0000

What does “the future of cities” mean? To much of the developing world, it might be as simple as aspiring to having your own toilet, rather than sharing one with over 100 people. To a family in Detroit, it could mean having non-toxic drinking water. For planners and mayors, it’s about a lot of things — sustainability, economy, inclusivity, and resilience. Most of us can hope we can spend a little less time on our commutes to work and a little more time with our families. For a rich white dude up in a 50th floor penthouse, “the future of cities” might mean zipping around in a flying car while a robot jerks you off and a drone delivers your pizza. For many companies, the future of cities is simply about business and money, presented to us as buzzwords like “smart city” and “the city of tomorrow.” A collaboration with The Nantucket Project. Edited by Thomas Niles Graphics & Editing by Nate DeYoung Produced by Sean Barth & Rich Peete Executive Producer - Alex Klabin Assistant Editor - Erin DeWitt Music by George Langford Additional music by William Onyeabor Re-recording Mixer - Colin Alexander Color by Irving Harvey

Sweetening the pill: Could some birth-control methods kill you?

Documentary.net staff — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 06:49:47 +0000

Could some pharmaceutical birth-control methods be having side-effects that are more dangerous than women realise? The birth control pill was one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. But decades after its introduction, women are being prescribed birth control at a young age, and are taking it for years without realising there may be other safer options for avoiding pregnancy. Featuring interviews with parents and friends of those who've died after complications related to some birth control hormones, Abby Epstein and Holly Grigg-Spall question how much the public really know about their medical effects.

Fungus: The Plastic of the Future

Documentary.net staff — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 06:46:51 +0000

In this episode of Upgrade, Motherboard dives head first into the R+D world surrounding the development of fungi as a viable replacement for plastic, and the people who hope it can lead to a better and more sustainable future.

Illustris: The Supercomputer That’s Bringing The Universe To Life

Documentary.net staff — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 07:52:28 +0000

Part of what makes astronomy so difficult is the inconceivability of space and its mind-boggling vastness. But an extraordinary new supercomputer called the Illustris has modelled a huge chunk of the universe: a cube 350 million light years across, an area the home to tens of thousands of galaxies. Illustris reveals how galaxies form and collide, shows what happens when unsuspecting matter falls into black holes, and lifts the lid on a host of other dramatic events that have unfolded since the Big Bang. Dr Graham Phillips takes us on a virtual tour of our wondrous universe.

Collaboration – Changes in research and knowledge creation

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 09:52:04 +0000

A new culture of learning is together with the Internet pushing the boundaries of research and knowledge creation. On a journey from Danish biology garages to Google's headquarters, the film explores how the Internet is changing the ways in which we do science and create knowledge. 'Collaboration - On the Edge of a New Paradigm?' explains the philosophical and scientific development from the idea of the isolated geniuses or science created in isolated paradigms, to how interdisciplinary collaboration seems to be a requirement to face the grand challenges of todays society . The documentary ask the essential question: Are we on the threshold of a revolutionary paradigm shift? Get these insights yourself from some of the leadings minds of modern research. The film is an experiment in collaboration and created as part of Alfred’s Birkegaard’s PhD in Philosophy. Produced and directed by Alfred Birkegaard & Katja Gry Birkegaard Carlsen http://collaborativesociety.org/about/ The cast includes: Vint Cerf Elizabeth Stark Douglas Thomas Hubert Dreyfus Terry Winograd Howard Rheingold Heather Heino Joseph Jackson Cameron Neylon Hugh Rheinhoff Malthe Borch Gernot J. Abel Ejner B. Jensen Eddan Katz Birger Lindberg Møller

The House of the Future

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 22:02:47 +0000

Car giant Honda drives sustainability research with its innovative zero-net energy homes. Honda's smart house is an innovative eco-friendly, energy efficient lab, that is able to generate its own power as a solution to living off the grid. As we get more and more electric vehicles we're going to have to be more careful in the way they integrate with the house and how they integrate with the electric grid. So by putting the house and car together as a system, the system can be more than the sum of its parts. Created in partnership with the University of California at Davis, Honda's zero-net energy home is heated and cooled by the earth and generates enough power from solar energy to also run a car and feed energy back into the grid. In designing the home, scientists at Honda said they took local weather conditions into account to optimise heating and cooling. They say once their data is made public, people will able to incorporate elements into the planning and design of their own homes.

The Fastest Man On Earth

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 11:35:06 +0000

Dr. John Paul Stapp earned the title "The Fastest Man Alive" when he rode the Sonic Wind I rocket-propelled sled on December 10, 1954 to a land record speed of 632 mph in five seconds. He sustained the greatest G-forces endured by man in recorded deceleration tests up to that time, 46.2 Gs, when the sled stopped in 1.4 seconds.

50 Years of Spacewalks

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 08:54:45 +0000

This NASA documentary celebrates 50 years of extravehicular activity (EVA) or spacewalks that began with the first two EVAs conducted by Russian Alexey Leonov in March 1965 and American astronaut Edward White in June 1965 . The documentary features interviews with NASA Administrator and astronaut, Charles Bolden, NASA Deputy Administrator and spacesuit designer, Dava Newman, as well as other astronauts, engineers, technicians, managers and luminaries of spacewalk history. They share their personal stories and thoughts that cover the full EVA experience-- from the early spacewalking experiences, to spacesuit manufacturing, to modern day spacewalks aboard the International Space Station as well as what the future holds for humans working on a tether in space. "Suit Up," is narrated by actor and fan of space exploration Jon Cryer. Cryer recently traveled to Star City, NASA Headquarters and the Johnson Space Center to film an upcoming Travel Channel documentary series.

An overview of the daily complexity and volumes of air traffic across the UK, Europe and North Atlantic

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 08:53:31 +0000

Both Europe 24 and North Atlantic Skies were designed to give an overview of the daily complexity and volumes of air traffic across the UK and Europe and to do so in a way that was cinematic and exciting to watch. I think we were able to do that to great effect, but we now want to take you a little deeper.

The Real Planet of the Apes

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 16:20:09 +0000

Travel to remote Liberia to discover 'Monkey Island,' an area inhabited solely by former lab tested chimpanzees who survived disease and two civil wars. We go to the island, interview the locals and meet the scientists involved in the testing facility 25 years ago. The Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research, also known as Vilab II, was funded by the New York Blood Center, shut down in the mid-2000s following growing pressure from activists looking to end the use of chimpanzees for research. Now the lab's apes live on a series of islands that were originally set aside for their retirement. In this documentary, made possible by the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, our team treks deep into Liberia to visit the island and investigate the legacy of the researchers who called it home.

Inside a biodefense research facility to handle pathogens like Ebola

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 16:51:51 +0000

Constructed in 2009 in the highly populated South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) facility contains labs that operate at biosafety levels 2, 3 and 4. Due to its location the NEIDL has faced a raft of legal and regulatory hurdles that have prevented BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs from becoming functional. "Threading the NEIDL," is a 1-hour documentary narrated by Vincent Racaniello, PhD, Higgins Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University, which explores how the NEIDL is secured from unauthorized entry, what's like to wear a BSL-4 level safety suit, how the facility is constructed to make it safe, and how workers carry out experiments with highly dangerous viruses such as Ebola virus and Lassa virus without jeopardizing their health or that of the surrounding community. This is a never before seen look at how one of America's state of the art biodefense research facilities operates and the security measures put in place to keep it safe, even in the heart of a major urban center.

The Pedway: Elevating London

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 10:41:31 +0000

The Pedway: Elevating London is a documentary on the post-war redevelopment in the City of London - focusing on the attempt to build an ambitious network of elevated walkways through the city. Featuring interviews with professor of town planning Michael Hebbert (UCL), architecture critic Jonathan Glancey, city planning officer Peter Wynne Rees and writer Nicholas Rudd-Jones (Pathways), the film explores why the 'Pedway' scheme was unsuccessful and captures the abandoned remains that, unknown to the public, still haunt the square mile. Planned & Constructed by Chris Bevan Lee

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: Major Malfunction

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 18:40:11 +0000

On Jan. 28, 1986, seven astronauts "slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." America's space program was never the same. They died as they slipped the surly bonds of Earth. The last words of that sentence, haunting words, were written by John Gillespie Magee Jr., an American airman and poet who enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, before the United States entered World War II. He was killed the following year in a midair collision over England. He was all of 19...

Inside the Cannabis Factory

Documentary.net staff — Thu, 29 May 2014 16:14:44 +0000

New federal regulations in Canada make way for the large-scale legal production of marijuana. Hershey stopped producing chocolate in Smiths Falls, Ontario, six years ago. The work went to Mexico, but the factory remains, along with reminders of the glory days: A sign that once directed school buses delivering children for tours. A fading, theme-park-style entrance that marks what used to be the big attraction — a “Chocolate Shoppe” that sold about $4 million of broken candy and bulk bars a year. The once ever-present sweet smell of chocolate is gone, too. In the high-ceilinged warehouse, where stacks of Hershey’s bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups once awaited shipment, the nose now picks up a different odor: the woody, herbal aroma of 50,000 marijuana plants. Clinical, climate-controlled rooms with artificial sunlight house rows upon rows of plants at various stages of growth. In the “mother room,” horticulturalists use cuttings to start new plants. The “flowering rooms” are flooded with intense light 12 hours a day to nurture nearly grown plants in strains with vaguely aristocratic names like Argyle, Houndstooth and Twilling. by NY Times

The Next Black – The Future of Clothing

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 25 May 2014 14:50:06 +0000

The Next Black' is a documentary film that explores the future of clothing. We meet some companies to get their opinion on clothing and its future, including: heroes of sustainability, Patagonia; tech-clothing giants, Studio XO; sportswear icon, adidas; and Biocouture, a consultancy exploring living organisms to grow clothing and accessories. A branded film by AEG