The Future is Wild - Episode Six Waterland

Sampus

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the sixth episode of the highly acclaimed documentary series “The Future is Wild”. Today’s installment is entitled “Waterland” and presents us with an interesting array of creatures.

Toraton

The episode is set in the Bay of Bengal, 100,000,000 years into the future. The episode focuses on three species: (1) Toraton, a descendant of the giant tortoise and the largest creature ever to walk the Earth. They can weigh up to 120 tonnes; (2) Swampus, a descendant of the octopus which has formed a symbiotic relationship with a plant to house its young. They are very intelligent; (3) Lurkfish, a descendant of the electric catfish that can fire up to 1000 volts to stun prey. They are ambush predators. 

The Future is Wild - Episode Five Cold Kansas Desert

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the fifth episode of  “The Future is Wild”. The title of today’s installment is - “Cold Kansas Desert” and takes us into the North America heartland, some Five Million years into the future.

The episode focuses on three species: (1) Deathgleaner, a massive carnivorous vampire bat that spends the day hunting for prey in the desert and spends the night in a communal roost; (2) Spink, a descendant of the quail whose wings have become digging paddles. The species lives much like the naked mole rat of our time; (3) Desert Rattleback, a descendant of the agouti, when lives in the cold regions. The episode explains that the onset of the ice age caused the agricultural belt of the USA to turn into a desert where temperatures at night regularly reach freezing. 

The episode shows how the animals have evolved to cope with the harsh features of this forbidding landscape.

The Future Is Wild –Episode Four Prairies of Amazonia

The Carakiller

Today on Far Future  Horizons we are going to take a voyage five million years into the future and visit South America where the Amazon forest once existed.

This episode features three species: (1) Carakiller, a descendant of the caracara which has evolved to replace land predators; (2) Babookari, a descendant of the uakari which lives like baboons and has discovered how to catch fish; (3) Rattleback, a descendant of the agouti which has developed tough armour and can live through quickly-passing grass fires.

The Future Is Wild –Episode Three The Vanished Sea

The Scrofa and Gryken

Today on Far Future Horizons we are going to take a voyage five million years into the future and tour the once sunny waters of the Mediterranean.

The Cryptile

The episode is set in what was the Mediterranean Sea in 5,000,000 years time. It features four species: (1) Cryptile, a lizard with a sticky frill to catch flies which it can then lick off at its leisure; (2) Scrofa, a descendant of the wild boar which has developed spindly legs to allow it to live on the rocky islands in the desert; (3) Gryken, a descendant of the pine marten which hunts Scrofa in the cracked rocks of the landscape; (4) brine flies.

The Future Is Wild –Episode Two: Return of the Ice

The Gannetwhale

Today on Far Future Horizons we are going to take a voyage five million years into the future with our world once again finding itself griped in an Ice Age. Just as in the past, life has managed adapt to these bleak conditions and has taken on new fantastical forms to deal with the unforgiving conditions of an ice covered world.

Snowstalker

The Future Is Wild –Episode One "Welcome to the Future"

Today on Far Future Horizons we are going to take a voyage into the far future and embark on a zoological odyssey and visit an alien world – our own planet Earth where the Future Is Wild and Darwinian evolution has continued its grand handiwork to sculpt and mold life on Earth into even more fantastical varieties.

Imagine our world some five million, one hundred million and two hundred million years in the future. A world where humans have become extinct and life on Earth can continue to evolve and flourish without interference or the treat of encroachment into its nature habitats from human civilization. A world were Darwinian evolution can continue unabated as it once did before the dawn of humanity. What would that life look like and what kinds of fantastic creatures will be roaming the Earth, flying in its skies and swimming in its seas.

Ice Age Columbus

Today on Far Future Horizons we explore a contentious question - Did western Europeans begin the settlement of the New World 17,000 years before Columbus was even born? And, present for your viewing pleasure a controversial docudrama titled Ice Age Columbus - Who Were the First Americans?

Firmly rooted in the latest scientific discoveries, this fascinating docudrama explores the premise that Europeans came to America much earlier than previously thought. Anyone interested in the “Solutrean Hypothesis” should make it a point to watch this program.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Solutrean hypothesis proposes that stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture in prehistoric Europe may have later influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making culture in the Americas, and that peoples from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers in the Americas. It was first proposed in 1998. Its key proponents include Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution, and Bruce Bradley, of the University of Exeter.

In this hypothesis, peoples associated with the Solutrean culture migrated from Ice Age Europe to North America, bringing their methods of making stone tools with them and providing the basis for later Clovis technology found throughout North America. The hypothesis rests upon particular similarities in Solutrean and Clovis technology that have no known counterparts in Eastern Asia, Siberia or Beringia, areas from which or through which early Americans are known to have migrated.

Ice World - A Tale of Human Survival

Today on Far Future Horizons we venture back in time some twenty-four thousand years to witness an epic tale of human survival during the last Ice Age.

We join a small band of ancient Europeans teetering on the brink of annihilation as they struggle with the most extreme living conditions anyone has ever faced, from encroaching sheets of ice that swallowed every bit of fertile land to a climate that was, on average, seventy degrees colder than it is today.

The Boldest Hoax

Group portrait of the Piltdown skull being examined. Back row (from left): F. O. Barlow, G. Elliot Smith, Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodward. Front row: A S Underwood, Arthur Keith, W. P. Pycraft, and Ray Lankester. Note the portrait of Charles Darwin on the wall. Painting by John Cooke, 1915

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode of the PBS documentary series NOVA. This instalment of NOVA concerns the infamous Piltdown hoax.

For decades, a fossil skull discovered in Piltdown, England, was hailed as the missing link between apes and humans. Entire careers were built on its authenticity. Then in 1953, the awful truth came out: "Piltdown Man" was a fake! But who done it? In "The Boldest Hoax," NOVA gets to the bottom of the greatest scientific hoodwinking of all time.

The True Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Today on Far Future Horizons we investigate the true historical events that inspired the famous horror classic penned by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Through The Wormhole: Will We Survive First Contact?

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the first episode of the third season of Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole to explore the possible consequences for humanity of First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization far more advanced than our own.

Scenarios examining how the first contact between the human race and an alien species might unfold are explored in the Season 3 premiere. 

Europa: Journey to an Alien Ocean

Today on Far Future Horizons we will take a 485 million mile journey to the planet Jupiter and visit its ice covered moon Europa, drill its icy crust and plunge into its vast alien ocean to answer a basic question - Are we alone in the universe?

 

In this episode of National Geographic Explorer, we will plunge headlong into the challenges of discovery on an alien world. We will meet the scientists, adventurers, and engineers who are determined to launch a mission to Europa and follow them through the challenges, frustrations, and triumphs that come with planning a mission to a distant alien world. Through the miracle of CGI we will take an unprecedented voyage into the very depths of an alien ocean in search of the strange and exotic life that may inhabit this alien abyss.

Close Encounters and Alien Abductions

Are aliens abducting humans? Skeptics argue these claims are inspired by pop culture, but scientists want to know if ET could survive the voyage.

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode from the acclaimed National Geographic Channel documentary series Naked Science, which investigates alien abductions and other claims of close encounters of the third kind.

22nd Century: World Wide Mind

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the pilot of the documentary series 22^nd Century: World Wide Mind which unfortunately never saw fruition as a full fledged series. 

Michael Chorost

Michael Chorost wrote the screenplay for this pilot documentary, which aired on PBS in January 2007. He sits on external advisory boards for neuroscience research at Northwestern and Brown.

Holiday in Outer Space

Today on Far Future Horizons we travel to the ultimate holiday destination and have a look at what space travel might be like through the eyes of visionaries, and learn about some of the most audacious projects ever. 

SpaceShipOne

Space is an unforgiving environment and the journey into space equally so. Tiny errors of manufacture or judgement are hugely amplified in the marginal corridor out of Earth's atmosphere. This should not be in any way an obstacle to progress and exploration - the 'shuttlecock-style' return-to-Earth system of Space Ship One has the lowest-energy impact of any space transport system currently in service. 

Patriot Day 9/11: National Day of Remembrance

Today on Far Future Horizons we pay tribute to the fallen of 9/11. Let us never forget the ultimate sacrifice of the men and women of the New York Police Department (NYPD), the New York Fire Department (NYFD) and other emergency workers who died in the line of duty trying to help the 2,977 victims of this senseless act of terrorism on New York’s World Trade Center. To New York’s finest and bravest and the many others who had fallen that fateful day we will never forget you.

The City on the Edge of Forever

Today on Far Future Horizons we conclude our week-long celebration of Star Trek’s Fifty Year Anniversary.

Our video feature for today is an all-time fan favourite episode from Star Trek: The Original Series - "The City on the Edge of Forever" written by Harlan Ellison.  

50 Years of Star Trek

Today on Far Future Horizons we present a retrospective of the "Star Trek" franchise, in honour of its 50th anniversary.

Star Trek’s The Inner Light

Today on Far Future Horizons we continue our week-long celebration of Star Trek’s Fifty Year Anniversary.

Our video presentation for today is an episode from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, that has been hailed as the best episode of the entire series titled “The Inner Light”.

Star Trek - 30 Years and Beyond

Today on Far Future Horizons we continue our week-long celebration of Star Trek’s Fifty Year Anniversary.

Our video presentation for today is “Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond” which was a TV documentary special made to commemorate the Star Trek franchise's 30^th Anniversary and originally aired live on UPN on 6 October 1996.

The Star Trek Story

Today on Far Future Horizons we continue to celebrate the fifty year legacy of Star Trek.

As our video feature for today, we present the  BBC documentary “The Star Trek Story”, which first aired as part of BBC 2’s Star Trek Night on August 26^th, 1996.

To Boldly Go…..

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Today on Far Future Horizons we join the rest of the world in a week long celebration of the fifty year legacy of the greatest science fiction franchise in history - Star Trek.

Hunting the Elements

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode from the acclaimed PBS Science documentary series Nova.

In this instalment of Nova we join the hunt for the elements, the fundamental building blocks out of which everything in the Cosmos is comprised.

Beyond 2000 ~ The High Frontier

Today on Far Future Horizons "a very special episode" of the acclaimed Australian science documentary series “Beyond 2000” titled "The High Frontier".

Iain Finlay writes, directs and presents this episode about the future of human space exploration.

Man on Mars - Mission to the Red Planet

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode of the acclaimed BBC science documentary series Horizon.

This instalment of Horizon goes behind the scenes at NASA to discover how it is preparing for its most ambitious and daring mission: to land men - and possibly women - on the surface of Mars.

Prehistoric Park - Supercroc

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the sixth and final episode of Prehistoric Park, featuring British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven, throwing himself into the ultimate challenge: of going back in time to rescue prehistoric animals from extinction and bringing them back to the ultimate wildlife sanctuary.

In this final instalment of Prehistoric Park Nigel seeks to capture a Crocodile so huge that it was large enough to hunt Dinosaurs.