Product Description

Gather your courage and take a trip deep into the dark recesses of some of the world s most unusual caves.

It s pitch black, toxic gases bubble up from deep below, sulfuric acid drips from above, and carbon monoxide fills the air. It s not a scene from a horror movie, but the interior of a startlingly beautiful--but treacherous--cave. Today, scientists are penetrating the depths of incredible caverns like this one, discovering abundant life hidden in the dark, and shedding new light on how life may have begun on earth and may exist on Mars and other worlds.

NOVA joins top scientists as they explore some of the most exotic and dangerous caves in the world, off limits to all except researchers. Explore Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico, an active and dangerous cavern that teems with life despite the dark and noxious environment. Travel to Carlsbad Caverns and learn how this world-famous tourist attraction concealed an astonishing scientific secret. And squeeze through the deepest cave in the Americas, New Mexico s Lechuguilla, home to the world s most stunning and fragile cave formations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36792 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 59 minutes

Customer Reviews

Can something be both boring and highly informative?
When this documentary talks about caves, it is talking about those deep underground with candle wax drips-looking tops. They are not speaking about what bears or cave men lived in. They are talking about places deep down in the Earth where it's too poisonous for humans to inhabit.

The point of this work is that these caves are the results of biology and not just geology. So the majority of the work focuses on microbes that can withstand acid, boiling wster, and a lack of sunlight. They do show fish, spiders, and insects in passing, but this is mostly about things you'd only see under a microscope. That may be boring to some. I didn't find myself as interested in this as I do when they show creatures deep down in the ocean that can make their own light, for example.

Chald, they show the scientists putting their urine in bags so as not to disturb the ecosystem. They say they had to carry their fecal matter out of there. Borat would be flattered! I'm glad these scientists were conscentious, but this was a bit of TMI. I mean, can a bit of human poo-poo destroy a place like the meteor did to dinosaurs!?

This work had a lot of female scientists in it. Hopefully, it can encourage more women to enter that field. Then again, maybe it's chemistry and physics that are mostly male fields; maybe biology and geology are more gender-mixed. One interviewee has a motherly, empathetic voice that makes all this boring science blabber more interesting.

The work concludes by saying, "Perhaps moons and other planets have these same microbes and thus can't be seen as lifeless." I think Star Trek fans and others interested in life on other planets will be very drawn in by that pondering.