What are some good documentaries dealing with evolution?

Question

I'm after stuff that explains it well to muppets like me who have no formal scientific education but are hugely interested in evolution.

So, can anyone recommend some good ones?

Answer 1

A good starting point, if you have the time, would be Darwin's book, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", which is still in print after more than 100 years.

It can be downloaded for free here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2009

A more modern explanation, can be found in the book,

"Darwin's Dangerous Idea"  by Daniel Dennet. Some of his ideas are controversial even among scientists who believe in evolution, but his book is very interesting.

You can read a summary of it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin%27s_...

Answer 2

PBS has produced some excellent documentaries, the latest of which is called "Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" a Nova documentary about the Dover trial where a school board in Pennsylvannia tried to get Intelligent Design taught alongside evolution in the science classroom as if the two were equivalent sides in a scientific controversy (which they are not ... Intelligent Design has pretty much zero support in the scientific community, while evolution is considered by pretty much all scientists as the bedrock theory of modern biology).

Here is a nice page of short videos related to evolution, posted on the PBS site:

http://www.pbs.org/cgi-registry/2wgbh/ev...

Answer 3

This is not a documentary but it is educational video. I highly recommend you check it out. There are some about general science but also several dealing directly with evolution. They are designed to be easy to watch and are targeted at people with no advanced knowledge. I found them fascinating.

Videos 6-9 specifically, but you would do well to watch them all from the first, as they tend to build on the previous ones.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?us...

Answer 4

http://www.talkorigins.org/

Everything you ever wanted to know about evolution from beginner to advanced

Answer 5

Main page:

http://www.drdino.com/

Seminar (documentary) page of this web site listed under "downloads":

http://www.drdino.com/downloads.php

The seminars are AMAZING!  I learned soooo much, and best of all, you can download them free!