Exploring Space: The Quest for Life

My 2010 New Year's resolution is to watch at least one "science" DVD with the boys. And this DVD is a good example why I think it is not only a good idea, but easy/fun.

Animation and pacing in documentaries has become so snappy, and prolonged talking head shots are a thing of the past. Sure there is a staged quality, and this may be too popular for some scientists, but introducing ideas to my first-graders like Pangea, left-handed amino acids, craters seeding natural resources (is that really as true as the DVD implies?) and so forth were received as readily as a SpongeBob episode.

Hmmm, looking at the associated PBS web page, I see that Daniel Barringer might disagree with the direct casual link, but the movie lead me to want to look the info up. Who knows maybe it will lead my boys to help work on a trip to Europa via nuclear rockets launched from the moon some day ;>. Or closer to home, maybe taking over Joel Hagen's job at NASA one day.

For me, Adam Bruckner was the star of the show, but then I tend to favor Doubting Thomases over true believers in all realms. Terraforming fever, catch it? Not until my gene print is probably gone from this planet, hopefully not the entire human genome.

The boys also got into the weightless-ness effects on the body, and the Russian recounts of how weak the first cosmonauts were on their return to earth caught the boys attention. As did the efforts to work out in anti-grav. Also the extreme fish-eye lens shots from helicopter stood out, making the Earth seem insanely round. Very funny to me.

Anyways, an enjoyable watch for us. Hope you like it as well.

8/10