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How our developing understanding of plants changed our knowledge of life itself
With some 7 million dried plant specimens, the herbarium at Kew Gardens in London is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world. Building on the Linnaean system, through Darwin to DNA, scientists there have traced the relationship between plant life-forms and the timeline of their development over the ages – from algae to mosses to flowers. While the plant family tree is thought to be 95 per cent complete, this short documentary reveals that continuing to study plants gives us an important framework for asking questions about how our ecosystems actually work.
Video by Lonelyleap
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video
Cosmology
Revisiting ‘Powers of Ten’ – what we’ve learned about the Universe since 1977
7 minutes
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Biology
It’s a massive, winged Cretaceous beast – could a human ride one?
9 minutes
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History of technology
Behold as a mechanical foghorn in Shetland awakes from its year-long slumber
2 minutes
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Physics
Models capture the world-warping physics of what happens when stars meet black holes
2 minutes
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Biology
The astonishing resonances between patterns in nature, microscopic and cosmic
5 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Who, exactly, authored this AI-generated spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo?
5 minutes
video
Biology
Peering into the eerie world of plankton reveals a variety of vital creatures
3 minutes
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Physics
Water, salt and music form a mesmerising visualisation of sound waves
7 minutes
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Film and visual culture
A Palme d’Or-winning animation toys with the way our eyes perceive light
5 minutes