Teaching material "Coevolution" online

Organisms do not live in an isolated way in the abiotic world. Rather they interact in manifold ways with organisms of the same species or other species. These interactions often put interactive selection pressures on the involved organisms.
Our new teaching material on coevolution is accompanying the video “An evolutionary arms race”

http://www.evolution-of-life.com/en/teach/coevolution.html#c342

Romanian subtitles for three "Evolution of life" movies

Thanks to the generous contribution of Daniel and Sorina Andriev three “Evolution of life” movies are now available with Romanian burned-in subtitles http://www.youtube.com/evolutionoflife09
Daniel is romanian translator and Sorina has a Biology PhD and is teaching Ecology and Environment Protection.

They offered their professional competencies to provide a set of Romanian subtitles to the following movies:
Darwin on the evolution trail (Darwin pe drumul evoluţiei)
O as Origin (Apa - sursa vieţii)
An evolutionary arms race (O cursă a înarmării evoluţionistă)

Daniel: “Check out these exciting movies about evolution on the project's Youtube channel. You may find out how Darwin set up the basis for his theory during a long voyage, how a small molecule can lead to life on Earth and how an evolutionary arms race is continuously developing in an ant colony. These movies are an easy educational way for kids to better understand what they consider "boring lessons" at school. And, as grown ups, you may be surprised. It's never too late to discover new things!”

A great example of how internet connects people and how participative collaboration can improve science communication world-wide.

New movie published: Good Milk / Bad Milk

We have just published the last short movie of the Evolution-of-Life project. The movie shows what Joachim Burger (University of Mainz) and Sarah Tishkoff (University of Pennsylvania) have discovered about milk and why some people can digest milk whereas others can't. The movie is available in English, with German or French subtitles. 

The beautiful and funny illustrations were made by Anna Jreisat.

Credits
Directors : Robert Sigl, Bernhard Rübe, Brant Backlund & Marion Hartl - Script : Lawrence Martin & Pleuni Pennings - Camera operator : Robert Sigl, Bernhard Rübe, Brant Backlund - Editor : Lawrence Martin - Animations : Kerstin Feurle - Illustrations : Anna Jreisat - Music : Seiji Nair - Audio Post-Production: Paul Darling - "Clean lab" footage : Alan Cooper & Jeremy Austin - Executive Producer : Pleuni Pennings - Production : LMU Munich (2012).

Spanish subtitled "Mutations - selection: the bacteria resist"

Surf, share, comment…and if the participation age of the Internet would even be more?A great example of active contribution has just come up for the “Evolution of life” project.Marcelo Oré Vásquez, medical doctor from Mexico, sent us a Spanish translation to the voices from the movie “Mutations – selection: the bacteria resist”

Marcelo: “Generally speaking, Mexico and Latin America are countries... where people have been used for many many years to self-medicate, including with antibiotics!!!Personally, I know a lot of cases, including relatives and friends! It's really terrible... Recently (2 or 3 years ago) the Secretariat of Health has finally put an end to this, making it compulsory for drug stores to sell antibiotics only to those people showing a valid medical prescription for the antibiotic to be sold.”

You can now view the movie with its Spanish subtitles on our youtube channel:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYIBTLEiNSo

It’s the opportunity to remind you that we already had this excellent example of user’s contribution, as Sorina and Daniel Andriev have sent us Romanian translations for « Darwin on the evolution trail », « O as Origin » and « An evolutionary arms race ».
On your demand we could envisage to create burn-in Romanian subtitles.«

Muchas gracias » to Marcelo and « mulţumesc” to Sorina and Daniel!

Text transcripts for the simulations

Text transcripts for the simulations are now available online in order to make the content more accessible and to help teachers using the simulations with their students in countries of other languages than those proposed on the web site.

You will find in the "download" section under each simulation a new link (text transcript). See here:
http://www.evolution-of-life.com/en/explore/simulation/fiche/the-flow-of-genetic-information.html

Simulation "The flow of genetic information" now online

The cell is a structure that is criss-crossed by flows: flows of energy, matter, and information. The major carrier of the flows of information is the genetic material that holds genetic information. This consists of a molecule with a relatively simple structure: DNA. In effect, there are 4 bases combined in this molecule.How can a molecule with a seemingly simple structure contain all the information on an individual’s characteristics? How is this information expressed? How is this information preserved during cell division whether it is mitosis or meiosis? Animated sequences plunge us into and guide us through this mystery. Grab on to one of the passing genetic flows and come surf!

http://www.evolution-of-life.com/en/explore/simulation/fiche/the-flow-of-genetic-information.html

Video about the making-of "Evolution of life"

The MEDEA Awards organizers (www.medea-awards.com) produced a video on the background and making-of about "Evolution of life".

The video is here: http://youtu.be/dFqj-scjAHM

Teaching document “Evolution in fast motion - Resistance to HIV”

The first teaching document produced by our collaborators from the University of Münster is now online. The web page (http://www.evolution-of-life.com/en/teach/evolution-in-fast-motion.html#c251) offers plenty of background information, teaching material and teaching advices about the resistance to HIV.


"From single-celled organisms to human populations, viruses affect all life on earth, often determining what will survive. But viruses themselves also evolve. New viruses such as the AIDS-causing HIV-1, may be the only biological entities that researchers can actually witness come into being, providing a real-time example of evolution in action."

"Darwin on the evolution trail" at Documentary Film Festival -360 Dok

The animation movie "Darwin on the evolution trail" is in the official selection at the Russian Documentary Film Festival - 360 Dok from 23. september to 2nd october 2011 in Moscow.

The idea of the festival is to give the audience an opportunity to watch the most interesting and topical documentary movies mentioned by biggest international festivals and to look for new ideas and forms of expression of scientific thought and research process with language of cinema

Simulation "A family resemblance" online

Nomination flowcharts, phylogenetic tree, classification systems, common ancestor, homology, analogy...Lost? If so, this is your chance to discover throuh this new interactive simulation the tree of life.


http://www.evolution-of-life.com/en/explore/simulation/fiche/a-family-resemblance.html

Article in "Media & Learning News"

Article about "Evolution of life" in the "Media & Learning"-Newsletter (February 2011).

The Media & Learning News (http://www.media-in-education.net) highlights general news and information about the use of media in education and training including interesting publications, events, initiatives, websites, projects, tools and information about various festivals and other competitions related to the use of media aimed at the education and training sector.

"Evolution of life" on facebook

"Evolution of life" has now a page on facebook. Don't hesitate to share with your friends to spread the information about the project.

"Evolution of life" nominated at BaKaFORUM 2011

"Evolution of life" is nominated at BaKaFORUM 2011 in the category "Cross-media Prize for School and Youth Education".
The BaKaFORUM competition honours excellent and innovative productions with a high educational value in the fields of education, science and society, and will take place January 27 - 29 in Basel (Switzerland).

"Evolution of life" presentation at MEDEA Awards 2010

MEDEA European Collaboration Award 2010

"Evolution of life" received the MEDEA European Collaboration Award 2010. The MEDEA Awards competition recognises excellence and creativity in media in education.


"Evolution of life" was described by the judging panel as being an excellent media application that appeals to almost all age groups or education levels with simple explanations, pleasant use of media where the content is explained and presented with layers of intensity and depth. They found the total package to be of a high pedagogic quality, with images, animation, witnesses, real video and graphs all being used in a relevant and appropriate manner, with a very good balance between seriousness and lightness or even subtle bits of humour that can be appreciated across cultures and which are nice for children.

Virus movie nominated for award

The movie "Evolution before our eyes" has been nominated for an award at the European Science TV and New Media Festival 2010 in London!

The movie tells the story of an experiment that was done to see what it takes for a plant virus to adapt to a new plant species. A small film crew visited Professor Santiago Elena in his lab in Valencia (Spain) and the resulting footage was transformed into an 8 minute documentary by Brant Backlund. The film already won an award at the "Vedere la Scienza Festival 2010" (category: Educational videos for the web).

"Evolution of life" finalist at MEDEA Awards 2010

"Evolution of life" is one of nine finalists at the MEDEA Awards 2010. The MEDEA Awards competition is all about recognising, encouraging and rewarding excellence and creativity in media in education. The finalists were chosen by a jury made up of 74 education and media experts from 26 countries. "Evolution of life" will be presented in the frame of the Media & Learning Conference (25 - 26 November 2010 in Brussels)

"Mutations - selection : the bacteria resist" at Imagine Science Film Festival (New York)

The animation short "Mutations - selection : the bacteria resist" is in the official selection of the film festival Imagine Science Film Festival (ISFF) .

Screening on 17th October 2010 at 4:00 PM in the New York Hall of Science.

Piccolina on TV

23th August 2010: film sequences from the animation short "O comme origine" were broadcasted on the french TV channel France 2 to illustrate an interview of the exobiologist François Raulin.

"Mutations - selection : the bacteria resist" at "Science Film Festival Thailand 2010"

The animation short "Mutations - selection : the bacteria resist" is in the official competition of "Science Film Festival Thailand 2010" (16 – 30 November 2010).