Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
The US research biologist Adrian Smith uses powerful cameras to study – and delight in – how small winged creatures go from grounded to airborne in the blink of an eye. In this video, Smith walks viewers through slow-motion footage of 11 of the most fascinating moths and beetles he’s captured taking flight at the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which he heads. Highlights include a trio of bioluminescent glow-worm beetles taking off in synchrony, and a waved sphinx moth launching from the tip of Smith’s finger. Combined, these clips form an awe-inspiring peek into the varying strategies insects use for moving into, and through, the air. For more lush visual investigations of insect-flight physics from Smith, watch Moths in Slow Motion and Insects Take Flight.
Video by Ant Lab
video
Earth science and climate
A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse
6 minutes
video
Design and fashion
Household items are reborn in a ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’
11 minutes
video
Music
As a pianist strikes a chord, visualisations of his notes appear in real time
5 minutes
video
Quantum theory
Why aren’t our everyday lives as ‘spooky’ as the quantum world?
7 minutes
video
Space exploration
Burning ice, metal clouds, gemstone rain – tour the strangest known exoplanets
31 minutes
video
Logic and probability
Chew over the prisoner’s dilemma and see if you can find the rational path out
6 minutes
video
Biology
The idea that life on Earth originated elsewhere is not as far out as it seems
6 minutes
video
Biology
Flicker through the eclectic beauty and biological diversity of 2,400 leaves
3 minutes
video
Metaphysics
Bertrand Russell wanted to kill off causation. Can contemporary philosophy rescue it?
8 minutes