Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
An insect native to the Oaxaca region of Mexico, the cochineal spends most of its life feeding on cacti nutrients. While, from a human point of view, these parasitic insects may have somewhat unremarkable lives, they’ve long captured our attention for the unmatched brilliance of the crimson hue produced by their hemolymph – the arthropod equivalent to blood, which in most insects is clear. Captured in stunning 4K resolution, this video from the science documentary series Deep Look captures the fascinating biology of these small creatures, as well as how female cochineal have been cultivated for centuries, and can still be used in food colourings today.
Video by KQED Science
Producer: Rosa Amanda Tuirán
Writer: Laura Klivans
Cinematographer: Josh Cassidy
video
Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes
video
Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
video
Biology
Beetles take flight at 6,000 frames per second in this perspective-shifting short
9 minutes
video
War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
video
Physics
What does it look like to hunt for dark matter? Scenes from one frontier in the search
7 minutes
video
Technology and the self
How the magic of photography brought Victorian England closer to the spirit realm
16 minutes
video
Home
An artist endeavours to bring the Moon down to Earth in a ritual of yearning
5 minutes
video
Information and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes
video
Biology
An elegy for a dying microbe explores what we really mean by ‘death’
9 minutes