skip to main content
The Brain Scoop

The Brain Scoop

Apply for Free Membership

Host Emily Graslie, Chief Curiosity Correspondent at The Field Museum, explores the many collections at the museum. Each episode provides a behind-the-scenes look at research, species preservation, and new scientific developments. Experts in various scientific fields discuss their fieldwork and share stories about their collections.

Still image from: The Brain Scoop: Indiana Sand Dunes
The Brain Scoop
Episode
17 minutes 59 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Illustration of a skeleton. Arrows indicate the front right toe and back left heel. Caption: Their elongated heel bone and Achilles tendon.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 1
2 minutes 32 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Closeup of an animal with a pointed snout, large claws, and overlapping scales covering its body. Caption: They are covered in keratin scales,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 2
4 minutes 19 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person speaking. Caption: To de-extinct a species requires finding viable DNA,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 3
3 minutes 19 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person speaking. Caption: that's a lot of species -- which ones do we bring back?
The Brain Scoop
Episode 4
3 minutes 29 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person gesturing above an open book. The book has a broken spine and faded, handwritten text. Caption: So we catalogue the most primitive first
The Brain Scoop
Episode 5
7 minutes 15 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person speaking. Caption: Well, today we're gonna talk about mammalian diversification.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 6
3 minutes 42 seconds
Grade Level: 11 - 12
Person holding a skeleton approximately the length of her thumb. Caption: …each of the limbs, and the scapula.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 7
5 minutes 34 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person holding a taxidermized flying squirrel with legs extended. Caption: As you know, flying squirrels don't fly, they glide.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 8
6 minutes 47 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Platypus with a duck-like snout, webbed feet, and a furry body. Caption: They're the craziest things I've seen in my life.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 9
5 minutes 44 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Giant walking stick pinned to a board for display. Caption: This one's from Malaysia.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 10
5 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Brown fuzzy mammal sitting in a tree. Caption: An olingo is a member of the raccoon family.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 11
6 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
People holding very small skeletons. Caption: Like you and I, there are five lumbar vertebrae,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 12
5 minutes 16 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person holding a small insect. Inset of a picture of the insect. Caption: Necrophila Americana
The Brain Scoop
Episode 13
9 minutes 49 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person holding a grasshopper. Melanoplus Differentialis. Caption: And this is a differential grasshopper,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 14
11 minutes 57 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Dried red-leafed plant with a cluster of long, pointed leaves. Caption: Poinsettias are another delightful botanical accent
The Brain Scoop
Episode 15
4 minutes 55 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person gesturing towards preserved remains of a dinosaur. Caption: This shape tells us that it's a meat-eating dinosaur.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 16
7 minutes 59 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person in a lab setting holding the body of a bird. Bird prep. Caption: about changes in species over time.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 17
5 minutes 45 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person holding a model of the human heart with a cross section removed to show the chambers. Caption: These aren't to scale, but to see the chambers.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 18
9 minutes 36 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person turning the page of a book with detailed illustrations. The turning of the page. Caption: revealing a new page every week,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 19
5 minutes 23 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Skull of a dimetrodon and a human side by side. The temporal opening on both skulls is highlighted. Caption: allowing for improved chewing and biting capabilities.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 20
6 minutes 2 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Closeup of the bottom side of a winged insect's body. Caption: All insects are roughly made up of the same sections --
The Brain Scoop
Episode 21
7 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Host Emily talks to Lance Grande at the Fossil Lake in Wyoming. Caption: One of the longest-lived lake systems we know of
The Brain Scoop
Episode 22
6 minutes 35 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Illustration of a giant shark dwarfing the whales it swims with and is about to bite into one. Caption: megalodon was maybe 50 feet, or 15 meters, in length.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 23
3 minutes 50 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person gesturing towards spear-like weapons used to hunt shark. Caption: and they have multiple rows of teeth on them.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 24
3 minutes 13 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Illustration of a fish with long, pointed fins. Cartilaginous Fish (thresher shark). Caption: those with skeletons of cartilage --
The Brain Scoop
Episode 25
6 minutes 2 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Two people sitting side by side at a table working on something under a bright light. Caption: Then you scrape the matrix from the fossils.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 26
5 minutes 58 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
People walking through a cave. Caption: And try and set your feet without dragging your shoes
The Brain Scoop
Episode 27
6 minutes 37 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Three people in a dark cave wearing headlamps. Caption: There are so many bats in here.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 28
9 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Snake slithering down a thin branch. Caption: looking for snakes and frogs and salamander
The Brain Scoop
Episode 29
5 minutes 53 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Sarcophagus covered in faded paint. Caption: a male from the 25th dynasty, about 2,700 years ago,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 30
7 minutes 34 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Partially dissected body of an ant. Crop, ileum, rectum, mid gut, venom gland. Caption: Alongside that is where the venom gland sits.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 31
6 minutes 26 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
A pile of small, furless rodents huddled together in a den lined with grass. Naked mole-rat huddle. Caption: If they're cold, they huddle together,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 32
10 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Black and white photo of a partially exposed fossil in the ground. 1900 field museum geology expedition (in which the brachiosaurus is found). Caption: It was declared the largest dinosaur known
The Brain Scoop
Episode 33
5 minutes 40 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Small stingray with dye coloring parts of the internal structure. Caption: and use different stains to stain parts of the skeleton.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 34
6 minutes 47 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person running. Caption: This frees our lower back, the lumbar, for movement.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 35
4 minutes 42 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Two people standing in front of a mural. One holds a printout of a photograph. Caption: One of Carl Akeley's photos. The beautiful bunch of aloe.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 36
7 minutes 13 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Owl with a small rodent in its beak. Raptor - A bird of prey such as an eagle, hawk, or owl that kills and eats other animals for food. Caption: Nocturnal raptors like owls eat many rodents
The Brain Scoop
Episode 37
8 minutes 2 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Green leafy foliage partially covering the ground. Caption: was this carpet of baby Kankakee mallows.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 38
7 minutes 21 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Closeup of a small beetle crawling on the edge of a leaf underwater. Caption: (Crystal) Riffle beetles live underwater
The Brain Scoop
Episode 39
6 minutes 58 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Close up of insects pinned to a board. They have green stripes down their backs. Caption: This is the largest collection at the museum.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 40
6 minutes 16 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Person using a wooden mallet to break open a stone. Caption: About half have something in them.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 41
7 minutes 27 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
A person holding a handful of mollusks that are tagged with unique ids. Caption: That's good for the future of that species
The Brain Scoop
Episode 42
8 minutes 10 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
3D computer image of a partially destroyed skeletal structure. Caption: digital representations of skeletal anatomy
The Brain Scoop
Episode 43
7 minutes 16 seconds
Grade Level: 11 - 12
2 women in glasses speak to one another as they sit across from each another at a table. One holds a black boot. Caption. Why would somebody be walking on coral reefs?
The Brain Scoop
Episode 44
10 minutes 4 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Map centered on the island of Borneo. Caption: I was the only one working on an area near Borneo,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 45
10 minutes 45 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Black and white photo of a man on a boat holding a baby panda bear. Caption: Her export papers read, "One dog. Fee: $20."
The Brain Scoop
Episode 46
9 minutes 21 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
The Kankakee Mallow flowers have bloomed at the apex of the plant. Caption: From extinction to several feet tall.
The Brain Scoop
Episode 47
8 minutes 59 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Taxidermized female lions in a museum. Caption: are two of the most famous specimens at the Field Museum,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 48
9 minutes 15 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Large skeleton with tusks in a museum. Mastodons were around about 20 million years before mammoths. Caption: Mastodons were on Earth before mammoths,
The Brain Scoop
Episode 49
3 minutes 57 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Apply for a Free Membership

Major funding provided by the Department of Education