Science to Watch: BBC’s “Life”

by Katie Bowell, Curator of Cultural Interpretation

BBC’s Life

I’ve been waiting patiently (and a little bit anxiously!) since the end of last year for a chance to get to see the BBC’s latest series collaboration with David Attenborough: Life.

The series, which took four years to make and was filmed over 3,000 days on every continent, tells us the stories of 130 organisms in the natural world, 54 of which had never been filmed before! Think “Blue Planet,” but even neater and often drier.

Well, I can finally stop crossing the days off my calendar because the series is airing in full on the Discovery Channel on Sundays at 8 & 9 pm, Eastern and Pacific times. The first episodes, “Challenges of Life” and “Reptiles and Amphibians” aired on Sunday, March 21, but you can watch the videos on the Discovery Channel online.

Still to come? Episodes on mammals, fish, birds, primates and, the two I’m most looking forward to: “Insects” and “Creatures of the Deep.”

Click here for a sneak peek* of “Creatures of the Deep,” where nemertean worms and carnivorous sea stars prowl the Antarctic seabed in search of their next meal. Warning: in the clip, marine invertebrates eat a dead seal, which does get a bit graphic.

*This clip is narrated by David Attenborough. In the version of Life that’s airing in the United States, Oprah is the narrator. I’m a huge Attenborough fan (ask me about the time I tried to get him to sign my shoe), so please excuse my bias in highlighting his version. If you’re an Attenborough fan, too, you can watch clips from Life on BBC’s youtube page.