NOVA - The Unknown World
by Mikael Agaton
List Price:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $11.92 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.82 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Jay O. Sanders, Lance Lewman, Liev Schreiber, Neil Ross, Stacy KeachDirector: Mikael Agaton
Brand: Nova
Writer: Mikael Agaton
Producer: Beth Hoppe
Producer: Bo G. Erickson
Producer: D.J. Roller
Writer: Mark Davis
Writer: Mark Hobson
Writer: Thomas Friedman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 60 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
DVD Reviews of NOVA - The Unknown World
DVD Review: For Itchy Audiences and Science Teachers
Summary: 4 Stars
"NOVA: The Unknown World"; second in the series "The Odyssey of Life"; WGBH (c1996), 54 minutes.
This superb photography by Lennart Nilsson has essentially four segments. The longest is the initial view of the human body as ecosystem, from the dessert wrist to the hairy forests. [This perspective was first developed by Mary Marples in a Scientific American article nearly 30 years ago.] The hair follicle mite is shown crawling in hair follicles without mentioning that it is harmless, perhaps beneficial. Animation of skin stems cells of the dermis produces the dead epidermis that flakes off. Thus when we look at a person, we look at a layer of dead cells. [A short clip of what a kiss looks like from the viewpoint inside the mouth could get a class of middle school students giggling.] Dust mites are shown reveling in skin flakes that are ubiquitous, although they have an important job to "cleanup our mess." Clothes moth larvae are shown in action eating wool; adults also shown. The fur beetle (a dermestid) larvae eat a fur coat. Silverfish eat book starch. A pseudoscorpion roams and eats booklice. Museum beetles (again dermestids) damage stuffed animals and insect collections. (It does not note that dermestid beetles--also called carpet beetles--eat most plant and animal proteins.) An old house borer is shown boring through wood; carpenter ants live in wood. At 20 minutes the theme changes to inside the human body, with views of blood clotting and new skin forming. Bacteria are in huge numbers and reflect beneficial as well as harmful varieties--tooth decay among other bacteria in the mouth. Time lapse shows bacterial growth. Macrophages are on patrol in the blood and lymph, shown in both video and still photos. Dead macrophages plus their engulfed bacteria constitute pus. A white blood cell is shown engulfing an asbestos fiber. Electron microphotography shows viruses. Two minor errors are in this section when the narrative states the virus "forces its way into the cell nucleus" and after replication "force their way through the cell membrane"--both passive actions. Antibodies as shown as a corona around a cell. The AIDS virus is shown in color enhanced EM photos. At 31 minutes, the theme shifts to multicellular internal parasites with "snail fever," showing the parasitic larvae (cercaria) penetrating the skin of the foot and the resultant worms ingesting red blood cells, then releasing eggs into the bloodstream and into urine. The mosquito and malaria are briefly shown, mostly the mosquito since the plasmodia are not photogenic. The treatment is cursory, alluding only to the destruction of the RBCs and not indicating the alternation with other tissues or to the variable cycles of chills this causes. The parasitism and predation theme continue with other organisms: scale bug on a plant, aphids sucking sap, ladybugs eating the aphids, hover fly larvae sucks the aphid juices (hemolymph), a bug "beaks" a caterpillar, male stag beetles joust for the right to mate with the female and winner mates with the females, and ants "sew" together fern frond "leaves" for a nest, food, and shelter. [Another error is a reference to the aphid cornicles being "siphon-like tubes," they are not tubes or siphons.] At 40 minutes the theme shifts to the outdoor environment, starting with the Venus flytrap, the digitalis leaf combating aphids, and the potato leaf fibers. The video asks us to see the world from the small viewpoint of beetles, earthworms, and snails. A pool of water contains rotifers, protists (Stentor, other ciliates, mosquito larvae, etc.) Daphnia are shown, with excellent views of "live birth" and eggs. An anthill, soil mites, and soil decomposers are critical in recycling. A bird is shown mating; then we follow its death and time-lapse decomposition: "Death awaits us all." Final emphasis is on how all molecules are recycled into "new life." Last minute then recapitulates the microenvironments.
This NOVA follows a story line written to tie together the photography available and is therefore gegmented.But it will hold general audiences, and probably leave most of them itching. For the science teacher, the photography is excellent, the sections noted above can be used separately allowing additional explanation and discussion. For middle and high school students, the language is comprehensible. For colelge use, the instructor will need to supplement with more precise terminology than provided by narrator David Ogden Stiers.
John Richard Schrock
More NOVA - The Unknown World reviews:
1
1
Description of NOVA - The Unknown World
Studio: Wgbh Wholesale Release Date: 04/24/2007 Run time: 60 minutesBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Absolute Zero - NOVAWgbh Wholesale; Release date: 2008-06-03; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
NOVA: DNA - Secret of Photo 51Wgbh Wholesale; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $9.82
Price in other shops:
NOVA: Cuttlefish - Kings of CamouflageWgbh Wholesale; Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops:
What You Can't SeeDiscovery Channel; Published: 2009; DVD
Best price: $31.01
NOVA: Secrets of the MindWGBH HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2007-01-09; DVD
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
What Darwin Never KnewPBS; Release date: 2010-03-30; DVD
Best price: $13.21
Price in other shops:
NOVA - Cracking the Code of LifeWgbh Wholesale; Release date: 2004-06-29; DVD
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
National Geographic - Inside the Living BodyWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-12-11; DVD
Best price: $12.42
Price in other shops:
NOVA: Bees - Tales From the HiveWgbh Wholesale; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Life in the UndergrowthWarner Home Video; Release date: 2006-05-02; DVD
Best price: $25.62
Price in other shops: