Browse all episodes of The Nature of Things

Why Is It So?

The program is about the natural history of this invisible world: the things that float in the air around us, the microbes that live in the dish cloth on the kitchen counter, the fungi under our fingernails, and the visitors in the saucer under a house plant.

Up Close and Personal: The Ecology of David Suzuki

There is a growing number of people who regard marijuana (cannabis) as a benign medicine, offering relief to people suffering from a variety of illnesses, including epilepsy, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma as well as lessening the side effects of medications and treatments given to cancer and HIV patients. CBC Television's THE NATURE OF THINGS with David Suzuki examines the medicinal uses of marijuana.

Reefer Madness 2

Grasslands

Good Wood

It is only recently that humans have become aware that animal communication is often elegant, elaborate and subtle. Understanding how other species communicate tells us a great deal about the history and evolution of our species.

Look Who's Talking...How Animals Communicate

Phallacies

How to Live to 100

The Hidden Killer: Portrait of an Epidemic

Parkinson's: Lynda's Story

We've all felt the terror of being lost - even for just a few moments. We lose our way; a child unexpectedly vanishes in the aisles of a supermarket.

Lost

Designing for Dignity: Engineering Body Parts

Race for the Future

Race for the Future, Part 2

The Sleep Famine

How much are children influenced by their peers? The documentary Do Parents Matter? examines a controversial concept put forth by Judy Harris, a suburban grandmother and author of the explosive book, The Nurture Assumption.

Do Parents Matter?

Silent Sentinels

Wild Goose Chase

The Birth of The Human Mind takes viewers on an amazing journey back in time, exploring the use of language, tools and how our distant ancestors came to walk. Contrary to long-accepted belief, scientists now believe that Homo sapiens did not evolve from Neanderthals, but shared the earth with them for thousands of years. Our ancestors, the Homo sapiens, are the youngest members on the human family tree, about 150,000 years old. Homo erectus goes back 1.8 million years and Neanderthals about 200,000 years.

Humans: Who are We, Part 1 – The Birth of The Human Mind

Paleoanthropologists, linguists, archeologists and other scientists offer the latest interpretations of fossil findings and genetic studies and posit intriguing theories on how Homo sapiens became the only existing human species. Did we kill off our cousins, interbreed and merge with them, or did they just die out? It took five million years for an upright ape to evolve into an agile, quick-thinking and inventive human being. But once our ancestors emerged in Africa, were we destined to dominate the globe?

Humans: Who Are We?, Part 2 – The Human Invasion

The nature of weather is so complex that it is really a system of chaos. Weather is often benign, but occasionally the chaos spawns fierce dragons. Severe weather - violent storms, floods and droughts - is largely beyond human control, and can be cruel. Few need reminding of the 1987 tornado that killed 27 people in Edmonton, the flooding of the Saguenay region in 1996 and the Red River in 1997, and the 1998 ice storm in Quebec.

Weather: Dragons of Chaos

Nuclear Dynamite

Breath of Life

Spare Parts

Lost Worlds: Wild South America

Lost Worlds: Wild South America: Monkey Jungles

Lost Worlds: Wild South America: Amazon Jungle

South America is a land of extremes. It boasts the world's longest mountain chain, the Andes; the mightiest river, the Amazon; the largest rainforest, the driest desert and the richest sea.

Lost Worlds: Wild South America: The Mighty Amazon

Lost Worlds: Wild South America: The Andes

Amanda is an insightful 19-year-old from Timmins, Ontario. She has a three-year-old son and a dilemma: whether or not to be tested for the faulty gene that will bring on Alzheimer's Disease by her mid-30s, as happened with her mother and other generations in her family. It is a disease that always leads to early death.

Amanda's Choice

The Secret Life of the Crash Test Dummy

PENGUIN SHORES is part five of the magnificent six-part BBC series Lost Worlds, covering the amazingly diverse topography of South America, and its remarkable denizens. The world's longest mountain chain stretches from the tropics to the massive Patagonian Ice Sheet of sub-Antarctica. Its icy power dominates the lives of the hardy animals that dare to call it home, making living there one of nature's greatest challenges.

Lost Worlds: Wild South America: Penguin Shores

Lost Worlds - A six-part series on the breath-taking natural world of South America takes viewers on a cross-continent grand tour - from the mighty Amazon to the spectacular Andean peaks and the world's driest desert - stopping to view the strange and wonderful array of animals, birds and other wildlife along the way. Produced by the BBC. Narrated by David Suzuki.

Lost Worlds: Wild South America: Great Plains

Coastal Forest/Salmon Forest

Salmon are considered an excellent source of nutrition. And farmed salmon provide it inexpensively. But at what cost? The Price of Salmon explores the complex issues involved with aquaculture.

The Price of Salmon

Surgeons of the Future

Maisin People In Papua New Guinea

Toxic Legacies

Hospital at the End of the Earth

Albertans have traditionally been proud of their mighty petroleum industry. But lately, they have begun to question how that industry works. Nowhere is this shift more apparent than along the Clearwater River in Central Alberta, near Rocky Mountain House. There, residents are opposing Shell Canada's plans to drill a sour gas well in their area. The sour gas from the well could generate $10,000 a day in gross revenue, to meet today's high energy demands.

Worst Case Scenario

Bob thinks but doesn't feel. Christina feels but has trouble thinking. Virginia can neither think or feel as she's pulled down into a spiral of darkness that zaps her very will to survive. Kent lives within a 20-minute time span, unable to remember his past or plan for his future. Each of these people has had an injury to a part of the brain called the frontal lobes and their stories, told in Me, My Brain And I, are helping neuroscientists unravel the mystery of what makes us distinctly human.

Me, My Brain And I Unmasking The Mystery of the Conscious Mind

All over the planet, temperature increases are affecting wildlife. Some species are spreading to new areas. For others, climate change means extinction. THE NATURE OF THINGS with David Suzuki presents Warnings From The Wild, a documentary that draws together recent evidence of the effects of the biggest climatic upheaval in 10,000 years.

Warnings from the Wild

A film about the amazing, but often overlooked sense of touch. The film takes us on an artistic and scientific journey from a woman who has completely lost her sense of touch, to a deaf-blind child that can understand speech through his fingers.

Touch: The Forgotten Sense

A documentary that looks at the understanding of this condition in the scientific community, and what hope there is for treatment, therapy or a cure.

Psychopaths

Are our regulatory agencies doing their best to ensure drug safety? Or are they buckling to corporate pressure to market lucrative new drugs before they are adequately tested? These are questions raised in DRUG DEALS: THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.

Drug Deals: The Brave New World of Prescription Drugs

Since the September 11th terrorist attack on The World Trade Center, the news has been saturated with information about a new threat, bio-terrorism. But how new is it? THE NATURE OF THINGS with David Suzuki presents BIOTERROR, an exploration of the past, present and future of bio-terrorism.

Bioterror

It's an epidemic of staggering proportions. Thirty-six million people are infected with the HIV virus worldwide, with over 25 million of them in Africa. More than 21 million people have died of AIDS, nearly 17 million in Africa alone. THE NATURE OF THINGS with David Suzuki presents RACE AGAINST TIME, a film about the greatest challenge of the 21st century and the work of Canadian Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Race Against Time

Adept at diving at speeds normally reserved for fighter pilots, the peregrine falcon is the fastest and most widely dispersed creature on the planet. A one-hour documentary, RETURN OF THE PEREGRINE chronicles this majestic bird of prey's journey back from the brink of extinction.

Return of the Peregrine

Biologists have seen within our genes the possibility of extending human life spans to 300 years or more. In the 21st century, will scientists reach the Holy Grail? Will they find the secret of eternal youth? THE NATURE OF THINGS with David Suzuki presents LIVING FOREVER, a look at how far scientists have come in discovering the human potential for longevity.

Living Forever

In 2001 the Government of Canada approved the following genetically modified crops for food use: canola, corn, cottonseed, flax, potato, soybean, tomato, wheat, sugar beet and squash. Is enough really known about genetic engineering to ensure that genetically modified (GM) food products are safe for consumption?

Genetically Modified Foods

Most major advances in medicine and science and are made by people who push the envelope. From morphine to cardiac surgery, we owe much to the risks taken by scientists of the past who have experimented on their own bodies to make new discoveries.

Self-Experimenters

Morphine on Trial

Cyberman: Canada's Original Cyborg

Wired for Life

Intuition

Beluga Speaking Across Time

Hot Flash on Menopause

Up Close and Toxic

The Ghosts of Lomako

Sex, Lies and Secrecy: Dissecting Hysterectomy

Terrible Lizards of Oz

Selling Sickness

Arktika: The Russian Dream That Failed

Shipbreakers

Clot Busters

Killed By Care: Making Medicine Safe

Tale of a Tiny Bird

Apocalypse Cow: The Mad Cow Story (Part 1)

Apocalypse Cow: The Mad Cow Story (Part 2)

Bhopal: The Search for Justice

Forbidden Forest

Passion & Fury: The Emotional Brain: Anger

Passion & Fury: The Emotional Brain: Love

Passion & Fury: The Emotional Brain: Fear

Passion & Fury: The Emotional Brain: Happiness

Fighting Fire with Fire

Being Caribou: Part 1

Being Caribou: Part 2

Whale Mission: The Last Giants

Whale Mission: Keepers of Memory

Origins of Human Aggression: The Other Story

Five Seasons

The hair-raising journey to discover the secret lives of these ancient crawlers. They have been roaming our planet for more than 350 million years and survived to become the giants of the spider kingdom. And they have a reputation to match – their name alone provokes fear and loathing.

Tarantula: Australia's King of Spiders

Nature Bites Back: The Case of the Sea Otter

Earth Energy

Change of Heart

The Secret Life of Babies

Tsepong: A Clinic Called Hope

Port Hope: A Question of Power

Everyday Einstein provides a fast-paced and jazzy look at the extraordinary impact Einstein continues to have on our daily lives.

Everyday Einstein

Homo Sapiens: The Rise of Our Species will introduce you to the ultimate family tree. This story is the story of each one of us. It's the story of the birth of humanity and civilization.

Homo Sapiens: The Rise of Our Species (Pt.1)

Homo Sapiens deftly employs both docu-drama and interviews with key scientists to illuminate the remarkable story of the origins and development of our species.

Homo Sapiens: The Rise of Our Species (Pt. 2)

Ghosts of Futures Past: Tom Berger in the North

A look at the rising interest in the ancient healing arts of traditional Tibetan medicine.

Blue Buddha: Lost secrets of Tibetan Medicine

Beetalker: The Secret World of Bees

Examines Cuba's response to the food crisis created by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989.

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution (Pt. 1)

In spite of the economic crisis and US embargo, the Cuban health system is an outstanding success story around the world.

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution (Pt. 2)

When Less Is More

Stephen Lewis: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep

Every year the Caribbean paradise is turned into a hurricane hell. From the beginning of June until the end of November its hurricane season in the islands. With winds of over 150 mph, 5 metre storm surges and torrential rain, the destruction caused by hurricanes makes them one of the most feared forces of nature.

Wild Caribbean: Hurricane Hell

The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging.

The series is named after an epic poem by Roman philosopher Lucretius: "Dē Rērum Nātūrā" — On the Nature of Things.

All Episodes of The Nature of Things

Browse all episodes of The Nature of Things

Season 1

Why Is It So?

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 11/6/1960