A cut-throat case of evolutionary backstabbing in the Peruvian rainforest
The Peruvian Amazon is teeming with life. For the flora and fauna that make it their home, this means that fierce competition is part of the bargain. This short from KQED’s science documentary series Deep Look investigates the remarkable measures species will take to get an edge in contested evolutionary battlegrounds, examining the curious case of big-headed ants, which have betrayed a longtime evolutionary ally, Inga trees, for a sweeter deal with a caterpillar.
Video by KQED Science and PBS Digital Studios
Producer: Josh Cassidy
Narrator and Writer: Amy Standen

videoBiology
For 3 billion years, life was unicellular. Why did it start to collaborate?
4 minutes

videoBiology
Dive deep into an egg cell to see how ageing reboots when a new life begins
2 minutes

videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes

videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes

videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes

videoMeaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes

videoAnimals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes

videoEarth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes

videoBiology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes