This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
KQED Science, the science arm of the PBS member television station based in San Francisco has created a new series being aired on PBS Digital called Deep Look, where they allow us to explore the big mysteries of the universe by going very small. All videos are presented in ultra-HD (4K) for amazing clarity.
Check out their first three episodes:
Plenty of animals build their homes in oak trees. But some very teeny, tricky wasps make the tree do all the work. “What nerve!” you might say. What… gall! And you’d be right. They’re called gall-inducers. And each miniature mansion the trees build for the wasps' larvae is weirder and more flamboyant than the next.
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There’s a story in every grain of sand: tales of life and death, fire and water. If you scooped up a handful of sand from every beach, you'd have a history of the world sifting through your fingers. From mountain boulders to the shells of tiny ocean creatures, follow the journey that sand takes through thousands of years across entire continents to wind up stuck between your toes.
Tiny and delicate, pygmy seahorses survive by attaching to vibrant corals where they become nearly invisible to both predators and researchers. Now, biologists at the California Academy of Sciences have successfully bred them in captivity for the first time. Finally, they're able to study the seahorses' amazing act of camouflage up close.
A new episode will be aired every two weeks. You can subscribe to them on youtube so you don't miss a single one!
