| Description |
1 videodisc (DVD) (60 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in |
| Summary |
"Bacteria are our most distant known ancestors, from more than 3.5 billion years back. In Australia, geologists are searching to locate fossils of these distant relatives, the cyanobacteria, on rock fragments. 1.5 billion years ago, bacteria proliferated and joined together to form the first multi-cellular being that neither breathed nor photosynthesized and which had a greatly limited genetic inheritance. Scientists named him Lucas. So how did Lucas live in such an extreme environment inhabited by menacing viruses? To answer this question, researchers are trying to track down fossils of Lucas in South Africa and Greenland. Other teams working in Antarctica have discovered colonies of bacteria that prosper in temperatures of minus 68°C, in conditions that resemble those found on Mars. A group of Japanese and American scientists are even attempting to recreate him with computers. What has been discovered is that bacteria are in fact capable of surviving in an icy hell or an inferno because they possess a veritable repair kit, with which they can reconstitute broken fragments of DNA. Bacteria-land explores all the possibilities presented by bacteria to make our lifestyle in the future easier still, and how we will be able to transform their potential from being the cause of illness to being harnessed to improve our lives. (From France, in English and French, English subtitles)" -- SBS website |
| Notes |
Off-air recording of SBS-TV broadcast July 13, 2008. Copied under Part Va of the Copyright Act |
| Credits |
Thierry Berrod |
| Notes |
DVD |
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Rated: G |
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Available for Deakin University staff and students only |
| Subject |
Bacteria
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Cyanobacteria
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Industrial microbiology
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| Author |
Berrod, Thierry
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SBS-TV
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