From August Choice Reviews
[Visited May'09] Sponsored by the journal Nature (CH, Apr'09, 46-4191), the Nature Online Video Streaming Archive is a treasure trove of well-made, informative, and educational videos that feature summaries of research as detailed by the scientists who conducted the work. At the time of this review, only 27 productions (based on articles featured in Nature) were available. Videos cover such topics as the biodiversity of deep-sea organisms, ancient tsunamis and their relevance to the 2004 event, and the DNA of Neanderthals and what it reveals about human ancestry. All videos are free and can be played at low or high resolution, depending on one's Internet connection. They do, however, require the Macromedia Flash plug-in. Videos can also be viewed on Nature's YouTube channel.
As one would expect from Nature, all productions are of excellent quality. They include interviews with research scientists, fabulous photography, and explanatory graphics that detail various scientific processes. Each presentation provides links to more information about the research, including access to the original work as published in the journal (subscription required or articles can be purchased). In addition to offering an interesting way to learn about ongoing research, the videos can provide an excellent way to introduce students to the work of field biologists. This reviewer can easily envision the videos being incorporated into class as part of a discussion on careers in science--a great way to bring the scientist into the high school or undergraduate classroom. The site's only disadvantage is the lack of a search engine. This is not a problem as there are only about two dozen titles to browse, but it could be problematic with the addition of more titles to the archives. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and general users. -- P. J. West, American University Library
