Mysterious Life of Caves - NOVA

As a long time caver who has worked with Dr Northup for over a decade, I think this Nova documentary really captures the difficulty of doing detailed scientific work in harsh cave environments. Lechuguilla Cave is spectacular, but the combination of warmth and humidity make it a strenuous environment for humans. It's amazing how much microbial life exists underground, all without the "normal" sources of energy required for life. This is a good dvd to show students who might be interested in a career in microbiology.As for one reviewer's complaints about TMI with regards to the minimum impact caving technique of packing out all human waste, it does greatly impact the cave environment if you don't pack out your waste. It is hard to study microbes without creating some impact, but implementing minimum impact caving skills increases your odds of collecting accurate data and preserving the cave environment for future researchers.

This DVD follows scientists as they explore caves trying to gather evidence that microscopic organisms were involved in cave formation. I think it shows the frustrations, dangers, and joys of scientific exploration in a interesting light. I showed it to some of my high school classes toward the end of the school year and got a decent amount of interest.

our 5 year old loves it. good info, excellent story. almost exclusively women explorers are featured.

Good video. I bought it for my earth science students, but it is very much about living things in caves and not the geology of caves.

I found this movie very interesting and entertaining.

Fantastic a wonderful addition to my collection of documentaries on the natural earth

An absolutely excellent production. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could. The photography and lighting were flawless. The information will bring the viewer back again and again.

When this documentary talks about caves, it is talking about those deep underground with candle wax drips-looking tops. They are not speaking about what bears or cave men lived in. They are talking about places deep down in the Earth where it's too poisonous for humans to inhabit.The point of this work is that these caves are the results of biology and not just geology. So the majority of the work focuses on microbes that can withstand acid, boiling wster, and a lack of sunlight. They do show fish, spiders, and insects in passing, but this is mostly about things you'd only see under a microscope. That may be boring to some. I didn't find myself as interested in this as I do when they show creatures deep down in the ocean that can make their own light, for example.Chald, they show the scientists putting their urine in bags so as not to disturb the ecosystem. They say they had to carry their fecal matter out of there. Borat would be flattered! I'm glad these scientists were conscentious, but this was a bit of TMI. I mean, can a bit of human poo-poo destroy a place like the meteor did to dinosaurs!?This work had a lot of female scientists in it. Hopefully, it can encourage more women to enter that field. Then again, maybe it's chemistry and physics that are mostly male fields; maybe biology and geology are more gender-mixed. One interviewee has a motherly, empathetic voice that makes all this boring science blabber more interesting.The work concludes by saying, "Perhaps moons and other planets have these same microbes and thus can't be seen as lifeless." I think Star Trek fans and others interested in life on other planets will be very drawn in by that pondering.

Good video on scientific exploration of life.