How did we get here? No, not you and me. Not any particular society. Not even humans in particular. The question is: how did life find its way from the simplest primordial micro-organisms to our current diversity of intricate relationships between complex organisms made up complicated cells? And, in a timelapse recreation, from single cell, the fertilized egg, to each vastly differentiated multicellular creature. How do these two pathways of generation relate? These are the elaborate questions that the synthetic biological field of Evo-Devo seeks to answer.
A woman takes inspiration from the social lives of ants in a letter to her own estranged sister, and discovers what it takes to survive as a collective. The short animated film "Ant Sisters" draws from scientific research on the evolution of eusociality to weave a tale about the complex dynamics of
An animated self-portrait exploring the path of human evolution so far and a glimpse of a possible future. As our evolution turns from biological to technological, are we now the bridge between the born and the made?
This film takes a real-time look at the most impactful organisms in Earth's history. Cyanobacteria originated pivotal evolutionary developments which transformed our planet. These microscopic bacteria live alone or in colonies, in any environment that has moisture. Over 2 billion years ago, cyanobac
Plant particles are digitally combined with abstract constructions. They thicken till figurative creatures are generated. The viewer is hoaxed to, consumed and regurgitated by these constructed forms. A mystical, threatening journey through the hidden and fantastic world of plants.
Patty Brennan is an evolutionary biologist that studies the incredible diversity of genital structures—from snakes, to birds, to sharks. Understanding the coevolution of reproductive structures. Learn more at Science/AAAS XX Files: http://www.sciencemag.org/projects/xx...
A journey into an ancient ocean where primitive lifeforms stir in the dark. A slow evolution from the very primitive single line to the more complex designs that swim and writhe to the rolling sounds of the deep.
This short animated film about the evolution of life on Earth would make Darwin himself chuckle. It's funnier than any learned treatise, and yet it's all here - from the single-celled amoebae romping about the ocean depths, to the first amphibious creatures crawling onto land, to the forefathers of
Microscopy, timelapse, and observation beautifully captures a lab's full study of squid embryonic development. Original score gives a momentum and underscores the aesthetic beauty of these images and data. Squid Development with music composed and performed by Kristina Dutton and Nathan Clevenger.
"The Jollies" is a biographical artwork about primatologist Alison Jolly (1937-2014), who was known for her pioneering theory on the evolution of social intelligence developed through her study of ring-tailed lemurs. Jolly's scientific and conservation work drew worldwide attention to the unique eco
A collaboration between a photographer, a poet, an animator and an electronic music producer. Linnea Rundgren is a unique photographer, who uses an electron microscope to take viewers into hitherto unseen realms of life – past, present and future. Over the past several years she has accumulate
Creatures transform their own shapes innocently just as in a child's play. Tearing apart and uniting, this play continues endlessly.
Propelled by Claude Cloutier's signature drawing style and absurdist humour, this animated short offers an overview of the evolution of life on Earth from rock to human, with some surprising twists in between.
Ostriches carry on their daily activities burying their heads, believing It's an Instinctive behavior. However, one day a research by phylogeneticist Dr. Kays proves otherwise.
A straight ahead animation beyond observation. In this hand drawn animation a line is being extrapolated through a grid. When the line surpasses the boundaries of the grid, the process spreads to and reflects on its surroundings. Beyond each boundary the extrapolation of movement is causing deformat
Springtime along the Mid-Atlantic seaboard thousands of horseshoe crabs spawn on beaches under the glow of the full moon; a reoccurring ritual for the last 450 million years. Citizen scientists venture out along the shore to keep tally of their population. The film attempts to document the annual ob
If you want the dough to rise, mix flour with yeast and milk. Then put the dough in warmth, so it rises a bit. Finally knead it well, place in the baking tin and put in the oven. Be careful, or the dough will fall.
The birth of the universe, and the origin of all creation - Humans invented tools, discovered fire and painted murals in dark caves. Murals were created on a mission to pass down stories and history to posterity. From murals, we could tell that the discovery of fire was a highly important turning po
In the abyssal depths of the ocean exists an alien world. Over millions of years of evolution, the creatures which inhabit this dark, hostile environment have developed an ingenious strategy to survive: bioluminescence, the production of light from living organisms. This short film explores how crea
In this ecofeminist jungle romance, a young research assistant learns an unexpected lesson from his distant cousins in the trees.
Symbiotic Earth explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a brilliant and radical scientist, whose unconventional theories challenged the male-dominated scientific community and are today fundamentally changing how we look at our selves, evolution, and the environment. As a young scientist in th
Underwater creatures—snapping shrimp, bearded seals, and more—populate the soundscape here, alongside the ghost voice of biologist Lynn Margulis, who rails against authority, societal amnesia, and easy answers. Margulis considers the genesis of complex entities, from maternally-inherited
Jesse Barber of Boise State University headed to Gorongosa National Park with two graduate students to study bat-moth, predator-prey interactions. They design several experiments to determine the strategies that have evolved in these Gorongosa moths to avoid being eaten by bats. The strategies invol
Becoming is a short film about the miraculous genesis of animal life. In great microscopic detail, we see the 'making of' an Alpine Newt in its transparent egg from the first cell division to hatching. A single cell is transformed into a complete, complex living organism with a beating heart and run
"Beetle Bluffs" brings to life the stories that accompany each specimen within a natural history collection. The film is by Anna Lindemann, developed in collaboration with Brian Farrell, Curator of Entomology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, home to one of the richest and historically m