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The Brain Scoop

The Brain Scoop

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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: Vienna's Natural History Museum Tour
The Brain Scoop
Episode
8 minutes 35 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
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