Biology Nights @ the Library
Biology Nights is on hiatus for fall 2009, but will return in Spring 2010. If you have suggestions for Biology Nights documentaries or themes, please contact me.
Life Sciences Librarian
Donna Braquet is the Life Sciences Librarian at UT. She can help you with:
- Purchase of biology books, journals, DVDs, electronic resources
- Questions or concerns about library services and policies
- Class Instruction (library services/resources to database searching)
- One-on-one, group appointments, and workshops at your request
Donna can be reached at dbraquet@utk.edu, phone 974-0016 or mail Donna
Braquet, Hodges Library, Research & Collections Services.
Previous Biology Nights
Spring 2009
Spring 2009
Evolution = Change
February 4
6:30 PM
Hodges Library, Lindsay Young Auditorium
Full run time: 96 mins.
What underlies the incredible diversity of life on Earth? How have complex life forms evolved? The journey from water to land, the return of land mammals to the sea, and the emergence of humans all suggest that creatures past and present are members of a single tree of life. (film website)
Related Resources>>
Monkey Trial
March 4
6:30 PM
Hodges Library Room 253
Full run time: 90 mins.
In 1925 a biology teacher named John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in defiance of Tennessee State Law. Come to see Monkey Trial to see what happened next. (film website)
Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
April 1
Hodges Library, Linsay Young Auditorium
6:30 PM
Full run time: 112 mins.
Judgment Day captures a landmark court case with a powerful scientific message at its core. Evolution is one of the most essential yet, for many people, least understood of all scientific theories, the foundation of biological science. (film website)
Related Resources>>
Fall 2008
Hurricane on the Bayou
September 17
6:00 PM
Hodges Library, Lindsay Young Auditorium
(film run time: 42 mins)
America’s Wetlands are vanishing at the astonishing rate of one acre
every 38 minutes. This film outlines why we must act now to preserve
this important natural resource and what is at stake if we do not. Join
us for this beautifully made IMAX film produced by The Weather Channel
and Audubon Nature Institute.
Film Website >>
Everything’s Cool
October 15
6:00 PM
Hodges Library, Lindsay Young Auditorium
(film run time: 96 mins)
A “toxic comedy” about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between
scientific understanding and political action - Global Warming.
Film Website >>
Biomimicry: Learning from Nature
November 12
6:00 PM
Hodges Library, Lindsay Young Auditorium
(film run time: 44 mins)
Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate)
is a new science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates
these designs and processes to solve human problems.
Film Website>>
Spring 2008
Too Hot Not To Handle
March 27, 2008
6:30 PM
Hodges Library 253
A primer on global warming, TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE features contributions
from leading scientists in the field. In addition to in-depth discussions
of such subjects as the greenhouse effect, hurricanes, snowpack, hybrid
vehicles, and alternative power sources, the film shows how businesses,
local governments, and citizens are taking positive actions to reduce
global warming emissions.
Read an interview with the producer>>
Visit the website>>
Related Resources>>
Why Sex?
February 18, 2008
6:30 PM
Hodges Library 253
Run time: 1 hour
In evolutionary terms, sex is more important than life itself. Sex fuels evolutionary change by adding variation to the gene pool. The powerful urge to pass our genes on to the next generation has likely changed the face of human culture in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
The advantages of Sex>>
Watch a preview>>
Visit the documentary website>>
Related Resources>>
The Last Antibiotics
April 10, 2008
6:30 PM
Hodges Library 253
The prescription of antibiotics is a medical tightrope-walk. The drugs
save lives, but, because of overuse, may soon usher in a new era of
super-germs. This program outlines the discoveries of bacteria and penicillin
and sheds light on the frightening emergence of multi-resistant, often
deadly microbes during the last six decades. Presenting interviews with
researchers who are deeply involved with the issue–including Tufts University
microbiology professor Stuart Levy and Eva Nathanson of the World Health
Organization’s Stop TB Program–the film examines the implications of
antibiotic-enhanced livestock feed and the dangers that staphylococcus
poses to hospital patients. Viewer discretion advised. Contains footage
of injections, surgeries, and open wounds.
Watch a preview>>
Additional Resources on the topic>>
Fall 2007
Typhoid Mary
September 26
6:30-8:00
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library
In August of 1906, a mysterious cluster of typhoid fever cases erupted in a very unlikely setting--a summer house in wealthy Oyster Bay, Long Island. Typhoid fever, a bacterial disease spread by poor sanitation, was associated with slums and poverty, not wealthy communities. About 10 percent of those infected, died.
The owner hired a civil engineer, (George Soper) to discover the source of the disease, and the engineer soon focused on the new cook, Mary Mallon. In tracing her employment history, Soper found that typhoid outbreaks followed her wherever she was employed.
Website about the Documentary>>
What is Typhoid Fever?
Related Library Resources>>
Confessions of a Germ: The Plague
October 25
6:30-8:00
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library
Gruesome, swift, and devastating, the Black Death is aptly named. In this program, plague tells its chilling story, recounting its infamous epidemic outbreaks through the ages and detailing its grim pathology. Differences between bubonic and pneumonic forms are explained and illustrated with dramatizations of plague victims and interviews with survivors. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plague specialists Drs. Kenneth Gage and David Dennis discuss the battle in the American Southwest to contain this deadly pathogen. Dr. Ken Alibek, former director of the Soviet bioweapons program, and other experts look at the threat of plague's use in the future. A Discovery Channel Production. (51 minutes) -from the Films for Humanities and Sciences website
Related Library Resources>>
(Double Feature!)
The Killer Flu
The Last Antibiotics
November 14
6:30-8:00
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library
Find out more about the overuse of antibiotics >>
Spring 2007
The Most Dangerous Woman in the America
February 26
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library
6:00 PM
Run Time: 1 hour
“Woman Cook a Walking Typhoid Fever Factory,” said the headline in
a New York City newspaper in 1907. The woman was Mary Mallon, an Irish
immigrant who as “Typhoid Mary” would become a notorious symbol of a
public health menace. Mary Mallon’s ordeal took place at a time when
the new science of bacteriology was shaping public health policies in
America for the first time, and her case continues to hold lessons amid
today’s heightened concerns about communicable diseases. -PBS website
Website about the Documentary>>
What is Typhoid Fever?
Related Library Resources>>
War on Science: Intelligent Design in the Classroom
March 29
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library
6:00 PM
Run Time: 1 hour
Are advocates of the intelligent design theory really creationists
in disguise? To what extent has the I.D. argument widened America’s
cultural divide? And if a clear winner emerges, who loses? This program
thoroughly examines those questions, describing the theory’s quasi-scientific
origins and documenting the Pennsylvania court battle over teaching
I.D. in biology classes. A historical overview of the creation vs. evolution
debate in the United States is also included, highlighting 20th-century
struggles over separation of church and state and the troubling implications
these issues present for American education. -BBCW
Related Library Resources>>
An Inconvenient Truth
April 11
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library
6:00 PM
Run Time: 1 hour 36 mins
Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of
the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a
major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin
of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics
and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom — think again.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH offers a passionate and inspirational look at
one man’s fervent crusade to halt global warming’s deadly progress in
its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it.
-An Inconvenient Truth website
Watch a trailer>>
Related Library Resources>>
Spring 2006
Human Race
February 9
run time 55 mins
Hodges Media Center / DVD: QP624 .D12 2003
The story begins in 1990, when the Human Genome Project was launched to decipher the complete instruction manual of the human being. This epic endeavour took over a decade to complete and cost billions of dollars. Eight years after its launch, a rival private bid was announced in an attempt to shut the public project down. A personal feud erupted between Craig Venter, who ran Celera’s privately funded Genome Project, and Sir John Sulston, who oversaw Britain’s share of the public Human Genome Project. Craig Venter believed he could finish the Human Genome several years before the public project. The fighting became so intense that President Clinton stepped in to try to unite the two sides. Clinton asked a go-between to sort out the two warring groups. Over pizza and beer in a basement, the two sides agreed to a cease-fire. They would announce their draft results — together — in a joint celebration hosted by The White House in June 2000. -From the PBS website
About the film>>
The Last Stand
March 2
The Last Stand, run time 57 mins
Hodges Media Center / DVD: SD397 .R3 L38 2000
It is rare for one social issue, however controversial, to encapsulate many of the most profound and far-reaching themes of the contemporary world. It is also rare for a documentary film, however incisive and thoughtful, to examine such an issue and successfully illuminate the full scope of its thorny, multifaceted complexities.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
March 16
run time 57 mins
Hodges Media Center / Videocassette: QH545 .P4 R32 1993
When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1963, she was viciously attacked, called "an ignorant and hysterical woman." But her warning sparked a revolution in environmental policy and a new ecological consciousness.
Related Library Resources>>
Natural Connections
April 20
run time 46 mins
Hodges Media Center / Videocassette: QH541.15 .B56 N39 1999
This outstanding program makes effective use of interviews with well-spoken scientists, beautiful photography, top quality graphics, and original music to underline the importance of maintaining biodiversity, if we as a species want to survive and thrive on our home planet.
Related Library Resources>>
Fall 2005
Evolution: Great Transformations
September 15, 2005
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library, 1st Floor
What triggered the incredible diversity of life on Earth, and how have complex life forms, including humans, evolved? Is there direction to evolution? And is human intelligence inevitable? This program focuses on evolution's "great transformations"—among them the development of a standard four-limbed body plan, the journey from water to land, the return of marine mammals to the sea, and the emergence of humans. Driven by a combination of opportunism and a genetic "toolkit," these astounding leaps forward define the arc of evolution. And they suggest that every living creature on earth today, and every species that has ever existed, is a variation on a grand genetic theme—a member of one, and only one, tree of life.
Film Website>>
The Secret of Photo 51
October 20, 2005
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library, 1st Floor
On April 25, 1953, the science journal Nature announced that James
Watson and Francis Crick had discovered the double helix structure of
DNA, the molecule that is fundamental to life. But absent from most
accounts of their Nobel Prize-winning work is the contribution made
by a scientist.
DNA: Playing God
November 10, 2005
Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library, 1st Floor
“Biotechnology would soon transform the pharmaceutical industry and
genetically modified food was to herald the biggest revolution in agriculture
since the industrialization of farming. Yet the public was skeptical,
and so were certain scientists. Some feared that a cancer-causing gene
stitched into the DNA of a bacterium might be accidentally absorbed
in the human gut, enabling cancer to be passed on like an infectious
disease. Biologists from all over the world were called to a meeting
in California to draw up a strict set of safety guidelines.” [PBS website]
Watch a preview>>
Related:
Previous BioNights
Biology Guides
Chemistry Guides
Agriculture
Guides
Natural Resources
Guides
Environmental
Guides
Health Sciences Guides
Page Maintained by:
Donna Braquet, MLIS
Life Sciences Librarian
dbraquet@utk.edu