documentary 2023 – Watch documentaries of all time

Should we bring extinct species back to life? |

Albert — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 17:00:27 +0000

All around the world, scientists are working to recreate lost animal species such as the mammoth. Using modern genetic techniques, they’re extracting ancient genetic material from museum exhibits. Do their efforts represent hope for the future of the natural world? Or is science playing God?

Findings in the thawed permafrost of Siberia have made it possible to reconstruct the DNA of mammoths. Researchers are now experimenting with inserting genes related to the ability to resist cold temperatures into the Asian elephant, which is related to the mammoth. The animals thus created could survive in the steppes of Siberia and Alaska.

In Australia, scientists have managed to extract the genetic material of marsupial wolves from preserved embryos in museums. The predator’s genes are replicated in the lab and implanted into the related marsupial mouse – in a bid to bring the extinct creature back to life.

And biotechnology could also help white rhinos in Africa: Researchers in Berlin are fertilizing eggs from the last two living females with sperm from deceased males frozen and preserved for decades.

However, these practices are also attracting criticism. Biology researchers question the usefulness of revived species for natural habitats. They fear that the excitement surrounding the idea of bringing back extinct species could distract people from the many problems that cause animals to disappear, in the first place. Are some scientists playing God – with unforeseeable consequences for the environment?

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The intestine – The body’s underappreciated control center and gut health |

Albert — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:00:37 +0000

The intestine is a true marvel. This organ’s complex functions extend far beyond the mere processing of food. The intestine affects the immune system and also has a powerful effect on our emotional well-being.

If a person’s gut is doing well, that person is doing well. If the gut is doing poorly, however, it can lead to chronic inflammation — or depression. So, what can be done to protect and strengthen the gut?

This documentary follows people for whom the gut plays a special role in their lives. They speak openly about what is sometimes a taboo subject.

Jana Eberhart has a stressful everyday life. The student works as a model and is a passionate about sports. In fact, she’s about to take part in an Ironman competition. Can a change in diet strengthen her gut so that she can perform better? Sports and nutrition consultant Dr. Jens Freese accompanies Jana on her project over an extended period of time. What impact will dietary changes and other interventions have?

For actor and fitness influencer Philipp Stehler, careful management of the gut is essential. He lives with ulcerative colitis, a chronic intestinal inflammation condition. This disease almost cost him his life. His large intestine had to be surgically removed. Philipp Stehler talks openly about his life then and now. While his diet used to consist mainly of meat and protein shakes, he now eats a vegan diet and practices yoga and meditation every day.

Carina Speck has been living with irritable bowel syndrome or IBS for 13 years. Bloating, diarrhea and stomach cramps accompany her in everything she does. But the social media manager doesn’t want to isolate herself because of it. On Instagram and TikTok, she gives tips on things like traveling with IBS. Dr. Miriam Stengel from SRH Klinikum Sigmaringen guides her, with recommendations on how she can get a better handle on her symptoms.

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Fake steak – Future-proof food and lab-grown meat |

Albert — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 17:00:05 +0000

All around the world, entrepreneurs and scientists are looking for a way out of factory farming. They’re concerned by the issue of animal welfare. But a primary motive is the ecological impact of industrial livestock farming.

Industrial livestock farming is responsible for around 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also requires huge amounts of land and water and is thought to be contributing to the rise in antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. This is why more and more scientists and entrepreneurs are conducting research on alternatives to conventional meat production.

In California, Joshua Tetrick is working on a method of growing meat in a bioreactor. He multiplies the muscle cells of chickens in huge tanks and cultivates them with plant-based nutrients. The resulting cell pulp is molded into fibrous meat with the help of a plant scaffold. A kilo still costs many hundreds of dollars. But Joshua Tetrick hopes that production can be scaled up to a globally relevant level. After all, with ‘Good Meat’ he was one of the first two companies in the USA to receive a license for cultured meat.

At the University of California, Alison Van Eenennaam is trying to make meat production more efficient. Using the gene editing tool CRISPR she’s altered the genetic make-up of a cow so that its offspring are exclusively male. This is a great advantage, as male calves grow faster and consume fewer resources than female calves to produce the same amount of meat – thereby reducing the carbon footprint of livestock farming.

For Pasi Vainikka from ‘Solar Foods’ in Helsinki, these are all just intermediate steps on the way to a truly sustainable future food: he’s cultivating a whole new category of food in gigantic fermenters: Bacteria that are fed with CO2 and hydrogen and blended to create a product called ‘Solein’. A flavorless, protein-rich basic ingredient that can replace eggs and milk in practically all foods.

Science journalist Ingolf Baur meets some of the researchers and entrepreneurs seeking alternatives to industrial livestock farming around the world.

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Collecting, storing and preserving – Which knowledge is vital? |

Albert — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:00:35 +0000

How can we preserve our current flood of knowledge, data and objects for future generations? What is important, and what can go? The better storage options become, the more difficult it is to answer this question.

We humans like to preserve everything, whether we’ve collected or created it. Be it sourdough starters, books or blood samples. We want to preserve objects, memories and even microorganisms.

Karl de Smedt is the only sourdough librarian in the world. In St. Vith, Belgium, he keeps 144 sourdough starters from all over the globe, some of which are over 100 years old. Through his collection, he preserves the unique wild yeasts and microorganisms that create each sourdough.

The German National Library in Leipzig and Frankfurt preserves copies of all books, records and media published in or about Germany since 1913. There are 34 million physical media on the shelves. Digitization can solve the space problem, but also has its pitfalls. For example: data has to be constantly copied, as hard disks can become unusable.

Prof. Robert Grass from ETH Zurich is developing a particularly promising storage medium: DNA storage. It is extremely powerful, can be stored for over 1,000 years and can always be read. Data is converted into the DNA code and stored as artificial DNA.

BioBank Dresden stores tumor samples, blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid for research purposes. Evidence from criminal offenses is stored in the evidence room of the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt am Main. This allows crimes to be re-analyzed using modern techniques and solved decades later.

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The business of space travel |

Albert — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 17:01:05 +0000

Astrophysicist Gernot Grömer wants to promote space travel. So he founded the Austrian Space Forum. Grömer sees himself as a “shipbuilder” who’s working on making the journey to Mars possible in 20 to 30 years.

To this end, he conducts analog missions here on Earth. For these, scientists known as analog astronauts practice for the journey to the Red Planet, collecting knowledge along the way. AMADEE-24 is the name of the current mission, which will take place in 2024 in cooperation with the Armenian Space Agency in the Ararat region, an environment with Mars-like geology.

The film accompanies the mission through its highs and lows. However, the Austrian Space Forum and its many volunteers are not only practicing for the colonization of Mars. Under the direction of Gernot Grömer, they are also working on a nanosatellite that searches for space debris. Space may be infinite, but the Earth’s nearby orbits now resemble a large garbage dump.

Europe must keep a foot in the door, rather than leaving the space race up to China and the USA: That’s the goal of Augsburg rocket engineer Stefan Brieschenk. He founded the Rocket Factory Augsburg in 2018. He’s working hard, both here and in the far north of Sweden, on a rocket that will soon launch satellites into space from Europe — at an unbeatable price. The Rocket Factory recycles items from other industrial sectors, including tanks from the brewing industry.

A film that sheds light on the opportunities and risks inherent to the business of space.

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Smart insects – The astonishing intelligence of bumblebees, wasps & co. |

Albert — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 16:00:17 +0000

The latest research shows we’ve long underestimated the intelligence of insects. Bumblebees, for example, succeed at behavioral tests also passed by intelligent crows. They use tools to reach nectar in an artificial flower.

Behavioral biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts is amazed at the paper wasp’s capacity to learn and understand. “They may not be universal geniuses like artists, but they’re brilliant in their fields,” says the researcher at the University of Michigan. The animals can memorize faces, eavesdrop on fighting rivals to assess potential opponents and think strategically. They can master brain teasers that even small children can’t solve.

Bumblebees, along with their relatives bees and paper wasps, are just three of almost a million insect species worldwide. But when it comes to these species, science agrees that the image of robotic creatures with no intelligence, that only exist to eat, be eaten or produce offspring, is outdated.

Below, above and alongside us live tiny animals capable of learning and acting with intelligence. They are able to store images, shapes, colors and experiences in their brains. For a long time, it was generally believed that intelligent behavior in insects was superfluous, as most only live for a few weeks.

Earwigs live for about a year; as babies, their mothers apparently teach them how to nurture their own brood. What’s even more surprising: insects from the same clutch can develop different personality traits. In horseradish flea beetles, for example, some are braver than others. And, as evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts says: “Paper wasps are as bitchy as the protagonists of Game of Thrones.” The animals plot, betray colleagues and fight to the death to be queen.

The insect world is much more complex than previously thought. One reason is that any species with a wide range of diverse individuals can better adapt to climate changes – an evolutionary advantage for survival.

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Will artificial intelligence save us or kill us? | Us & Them |

Albert — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 16:00:28 +0000

Will artificial intelligence save us or kill us all? In Japan, AI-driven technology promises better lives for an aging population. But researchers in Silicon Valley are warning of untamable forces being unleashed– and even human extinction.

Will artificial intelligence make life better for humans or lead to our downfall? As developers race toward implementing AI in every aspect of our lives, it is already showing promise in areas like medicine. But what if it is used for nefarious purposes?

In Japan, the inventor and scientist behind the firm Cyberdyne is working to make life better for the sick and elderly. Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai’s robot suits are AI-driven exoskeletons used in rehabilitative medicine to help stroke victims and others learn to walk again. But he doesn’t see the benefits of AI ending there; he predicts a future world where AIs will live in harmony with humans as a new, benevolent species.

Yet in Silicon Valley, the cradle of AI development, there is an unsettling contradiction: a deep uncertainty among many developers about the untamable forces they are unleashing. Gabriel Mukobi is a computer science graduate student at Stanford who is sounding the alarm that AI could push us toward disaster– and even human extinction. He’s at the forefront of a tiny field of researchers swimming against the current to make sure AI is safe and beneficial for everyone.

What are the promises and perils of AI? And who gets to decide how it will be used?

Us & Them Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLovlAKbQVz6ADQRs-01GJxfY-phAbHCmo

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Europe’s fight against blood-sucking bedbugs |

Albert — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 16:00:22 +0000

Before the turn of the millennium, bedbugs were considered largely eradicated in Europe. Now they’re back. As pest controllers can attest: These insects are on the rise – and not just in Paris, where they caused panic in the run-up to the Olympics.

This documentary accompanies researchers, exterminators, and hoteliers in Europe’s fight against the parasites. Bedbugs are small, agile, difficult to detect – and love feasting on human blood. While traditionally associated with our bedrooms, they can also be found everywhere from bus and train seats to libraries and cinemas. Their robustness and mastery of the art of concealment makes exterminating them a complicated and costly undertaking.

Christoph Otto calls his job the “Champions League of pest control.” The professional exterminator in southern Germany heats up infested rooms to over 50 degrees Celsius to rid them of bedbugs. Over in Britain, insect researcher Richard Naylor has been fascinated by the pests since his university days over 20 years ago. He now breeds them for research institutes, sniffer dog training schools, and the pest control industry. To achieve the best results, Naylor feeds the bugs with his own blood. He even has a specially-built bedroom where he sleeps to study the bugs’ behavior. Conveniently, unlike many other people, he has only a negligible reaction to their bites. At the individual level, the researcher also uses his experience to answer enquiries from those affected.

Bedbug infestations can be particularly bad news for hotels. Many hoteliers prefer to stay silent on the issue due to the fear of losing business. Max Malka is among the few who are going on the offensive – by attracting visitors to his Paris area hotel with a high-tech pest-alert system. The German Alpine Club (DAV) has also taken an open approach to the problem, giving hikers a range of special guidelines and explanatory information.

Will these concerted efforts result in the reduction of these blood-sucking pests to levels observed before the turn of the millennium?

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The International Space Station: a unique space project |

Albert — Tue, 07 May 2024 16:00:43 +0000

The International Space Station (ISS) is a unique venture. It is the largest project in space the world has ever seen. Since its first component was launched into orbit on 20 November, 1998, the ISS has experienced both highs and lows.

This documentary explores the singular historical situation that made the construction of the ISS possible and hears firsthand from crew members from various nations. It sheds light on the challenges that ISS crews have faced over the years, such as the fact that, for a long time, female astronauts were unable to carry out space walks because there were no suitable space suits available for women. The films also shows how space can be deeply affected by political crises, as events such as the war in Ukraine have been felt in the confined spaces of the ISS. Nonetheless, the International Space Station is proof that nations can work together towards incredible common goals – not for nothing has it been called “humankind’s most valuable machine”. But the end fast approaching. The project was supposed to end in 2024, until the US government agreed to continue operating the ISS until 2030. In 2031, the space station is due to be brought back to Earth using a controlled process of de-orbiting.

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Mars – Life on the Red Planet? |

Albert — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:00:43 +0000

In February 2021, the robot “Perseverance” landed successfully on Mars. However, this success was never a given. The film shows the difficult work involved in developing the robot, right up to its successful landing.

The new robot NASA sent to Mars is called “Perseverance”. Its mission? To search for evidence of past life on the Red Planet – an important and ambitious endeavor. It took years to design the space probe and its small helicopter drone, called “Ingenuity”. This documentary follows the rover’s development, right up to its landing in the Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.

The mission proved to be a complete success: the robot landed safely and all the instruments on board functioned smoothly. As a result, “Perseverance” was able to deliver high-resolution images of Mars. But getting there was an arduous journey for all involved.

On site, “Perseverance” takes samples from the crater, which scientists believe was once a river delta. Geological traces of past life – so-called biosignatures – could be hidden in the rock. Eventually, these samples will be brought back to Earth for analysis. Among other things, they could provide insights into possible life on Mars.

The four-pound mini-helicopter “Ingenuity”, which traveled in the belly of the rover, is now carrying out a series of test flights. These are the first of their kind to be undertaken on another planet. Another task of “Perseverance” is to test an innovative technology for extracting oxygen from the atmosphere. It is hoped that the gas can be used as fuel — or to supply oxygen for future manned flights to Mars.

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