Having recently mated, a queen ant digs furiously underground to found a new colony. Only 2% of ant queens successfully found new colonies. The initial challenge is to select a suitable location for the new colony. Next, a newly-mated queen ant must dig down into the ground, where she will lay her first batch of eggs. Once underground, she may never see daylight again. The ant queen will devote the rest of her life to producing offspring and regulating aspects of the colony through selective reproduction. This program was made with the generous assistance of the University of California Los Angeles, Department of Entomology.
Under the surface of a freshwater pond, microscopic organisms graze on shimmering reefs of photosynthesizing algae and bacteria. Explore a jewel-like aquatic realm, home to single-celled ciliates like Euplotes, Coleps, and Paramecia, as well as miniscule animals called Rotifers. Created in collab...
Swirling green energy factories wash your cares away while using sunlight to enable life on earth. Cytoplasmic streaming inside plant cells is very efficient -- the slow turning of each round chloroplast means every square micron gets a chance to create energy and oxygen from sunlight. Here, we'r...
Meet a tiny 1000-celled animal living among single-cell organisms. Rotifers are among Earth's smallest animals, and even though this Stephanoceros is a giant rotifer, it is still barely visible to the unaided eye. Beautifully captured in award-winning video microscopy by Tom Jones. Original music...
