One of the biggest challenges with producing a great Deep Look episode is finding the right subject – so we're fortunate we often get the opportunity to collaborate with scientists who are passionate about their research.
For our upcoming video about webspinners, an insect that shoots silk from their front feet, producer Jenny Oh worked with Janice Edgerly-Rooks, a professor of biolog...
🎉Woohoo, WE DID IT! 🎉We’ve reached our funding goal of $2000/month – so we’d like to extend a big thank you to our generous Patreon community! Now we’ll be headed to Oaxaca, Mexico next spring for a special filming expedition. ✈️🇲🇽Visit us on Patreon to get updates on these stories for our next season of Deep Look!
2019-10-30 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Every fall, male tarantulas leave home for good with one thing on their minds: sex. But before these spiders can make the ultimate connection, they have to survive the perils of the open road ... which include their potential mates.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science ...
2019-10-29 21:59:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Phew! It was almost 100 degrees in southeastern Colorado when producer Elliott Kennerson and his crew were filming an upcoming episode about tarantulas. Even the spiders were looking for shade anywhere they could find it –– including the hood of cinematographer Kevin Collins’ camera. Stay tuned for this new video that premieres next week! 🕷️
Photo credit: Kevin Collins
2019-10-29 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
We’re so very excited to announce that our very own Josh Cassidy has been nominated in the streamyawards' cinematography category this year! With him behind the lens, Deep Look’s beautiful visuals come to life. Congrats, Josh! 🎥🦋
2019-10-23 19:31:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Something is growing inside that fruit fly in your kitchen. At dusk, the fly points its wings straight up and dies in a gruesome pose so that a fungus can ooze out and fire hundreds of reproductive spores.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on T...
2019-10-18 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Halloween is just around the corner, and we’ve got a spooky story coming up that focuses on a fly-killing fungus. Deep Look producer Gabriela Quirós worked closely with Harvard researcher Carolyn Elya on this episode. In this photo, Carolyn’s checking out a camera monitor that shows a fruit fly infected by this fungus (Entomophthora muscae). Find out more when the video premieres next Tuesday! 🎃🎃
Credit: Gabriela Quirós
2019-10-15 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Bay Area Deep Peeps! We'll be at the Exploratorium
's "After Dark: It's Alive!"
event on Thursday, October 24. Join us to watch some of our videos, interact with some creepy crawly specimens and hear some harrowing behind-the-scenes stories. Hope to see you there! Click on the photo above to buy tickets.🕷️🕷️🕷️
Giant Malaysian leaf insects stay still – very still – on their host plants to avoid hungry predators. But as they grow up, they can't get lazy with their camouflage. They change – and even dance – to blend in with the ever-shifting foliage.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other<...
2019-10-04 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
While we weren't able to fly to Malaysia to film these fascinating insects, we're fortunate that there's an incredible science museum located in the heart of San Francisco–the California Academy of Sciences–with an extraordinary collection of wildlife. These masters of camouflage are featured in a new exhibit, "Color of Life", that ex...
2019-10-01 17:35:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps! Can you see what’s hiding in that section of bark? It’s a webspinner, working away on spinning a silk gallery for its shelter! We’re busy producing a new episode about this fascinating insect – have any questions about for us? Post them here, and we’ll try to answer them in the video or web article! 🕸️
2019-09-30 18:42:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Kidnapper ants raid other ant species' colonies, abduct their young and take them back to their nest. When the enslaved babies grow up, the kidnappers trick them into serving their captors – hunting, cleaning the nest, even chewing up their food for them.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with
Hey Deep Peeps! We’ve got a new video in the works, and this story is actually taking us across the country from San Francisco to Cambridge, Massachusetts. A Harvard University researcher has been studying a killer fungus that turns flies into zombies in order to survive. Have any questions about this pest pathogen? Post them here, and we’ll try to answer them in the video or web article!
2019-09-05 18:14:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps,
We do a survey every year that asks about what you’re into, your favorite PBS shows and things you’d like to see more of from PBS Digital Studios. You even get to vote on potential new shows!
All of this helps us make more of the stuff YOU want to see. The survey takes about ten minutes, and you might win a sweet T-shirt. Click here to take the survey. Thanks!
2019-09-03 17:46:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps! We’re hard at work on a new video about giant Malaysian leaf insects. 🍃Have any questions about these cool masters of camouflage? Post them here, and we’ll try to answer them in the video or web article!🍃
2019-08-27 18:16:24 +0000 UTC View Post
We're big fans of ants here at Deep Look, so much so that we're working on our third video about these fascinating insects. (ICYMI: Watch "Where Are the Ants Carrying All Those Leaves?" and "The Double-Crossing Ants to Whom Friendship Means Nothing".)
Our lead producer and cinematographer Josh Cassidy recently spent several days filming "2019-08-22 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
While known for being the world’s fastest bird–peregrines have been clocked at diving more than 200 miles per hour–these majestic birds were at risk for going extinct 50 years ago. Widespread use of pesticides such as DDT decimated native populations of peregrine falcons.
By 1970, California’s peregrine population had dwindled to only two known nesting pairs statewide. The federal government banned D...
2019-08-16 20:57:08 +0000 UTC View Post
It's not easy filming the the world's fastest bird – peregrine falcons have been clocked diving at over 200 mph – but it helps when you have an accommodating, charming subject, "Cubbie", who patiently assisted us with our upcoming episode.
We headed up to West Coast Falconry (WCF) to film a peregrine falcon in flight. Located in Marysville, California, about a 2-hour drive north of San Francisco, WCF rescu...
2019-08-15 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps,
Our very own Gabriela Quirós, a Deep Look producer and coordinating producer, has answered some of your burning questions about production, parasites and more. We hope you enjoy learning more about Gabriela!
What kind of degree(s) did you obtain in order to be in your current field, if any?
I studied journalism as an undergraduate at the University of Costa ...
2019-08-13 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps,
A lot of hard work happens behind the scenes of each Deep Look episode, and we'd be lost without Gabriela Quirós. As our coordinating producer, she ensures our production schedule is running smoothly – when she's not also busy producing episodes.
Gabriela has been reporting on health for 25 years and has translated that passion into a series of Deep Look episodes about the insects that live off of us. We consider her our team's parasite expert,...
2019-08-06 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
🎉Great news, Deep Peeps! 🎉 We’re in the running for a Jackson Wild Media Award in the “Best Limited Series Film (Short Form)” category. Cross your fingers that we’ll win this prestigious award that celebrates science and nature storytelling again – we were honored to win last year! 🤞🤞🤞
A rattlesnake's rattle isn't like a maraca, with little bits shaking around inside. So how exactly does it make that sound?
The rattlesnake’s rattle is actually made up of loosely interlocking segments made of keratin, the same strong fibrous protein in your fingernails. Each section is held in place by the one in front and behind it, but the individual segments can move bit.
The snake uses special high-performance muscles to shake its tail, sending undulating waves ...
2019-07-26 23:21:18 +0000 UTC View Post
How does one film rattlesnakes for an upcoming Deep Look episode? Very carefully! Our cinematographer and lead producer Josh Cassidy used a transparent tube to safely film this northern Pacific rattlesnake – and its rattle – up-close.
Eric Stitt (left) and Michael Starkey (right) from Save the Snakes hel...
2019-07-23 19:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps! We’re producing a new video about “kidnapper" ants: these parasitic ants use other ants’ young as a captive workforce.🐜 Post any questions you have in the comments, and we’ll pass them along to our team. We’ll try to answer them in our upcoming episode or web article!🐜
2019-07-16 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Deep Peeps!
Our team is working on a new video about leafcutting bees. 🐝In California’s Central and Imperial Valleys, alfalfa seed growers need help pollinating their plants during the month of June – and that’s where the grayish, easygoing alfalfa leafcutting bee pitches in. Have questions about these busy little bees? Post them here, and we’ll try to answer them in the video or web article!🐝
At night, these parasites crawl onto your bed, bite you and suck your blood. Then they find a nearby hideout where they leave disgusting telltale signs. But these pests have an Achilles’ heel that stops them cold.
Adult bed bugs are about the size and color of an apple seed. After biting, they hide in a nearby cranny, like the seam of the mattress.
At the University of California, Irvine, biologist and engineer Catherine Loudon is working to create synthetic surfaces that could ...
2019-07-05 19:32:05 +0000 UTC View Post
🙏 🕳️👀 Hey Deep Peeps! 🔎Macronauts! 🔬Deep Lookers! We recently reached *ONE MILLION SUBSCRIBERS* — that's ten raised to the 6th power! Thank you to everyone who loves nature's weird and wonderful tiny creatures as much as we do.
In this video, the Deep Look team received a package in the mail: our 💛One Million Subscribers Gold Play Button from YouTube!💛 Here is the official unboxing, when we get to see it for the very first time. For real - we ...
2019-06-26 20:45:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Straight out of science fiction, the fearsome wormlion ambushes prey at the bottom of a tidy –and terrifying– sand pit, then flicks their carcasses out. These meals fuel its transformation into something unexpected.
Ominous creatures that lurk deep underground in the desert, like the sandworms in the classic science fiction novel, Dune, aren’t just make-believe. For ants and other prey, wo...
2019-06-07 19:30:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Yep, you probably have Demodex mites living on your face. These tiny arachnids feast on sebum, the greasy oil in your pores. But should you be worried about your eight-legged guests?
They’re called Demodex. And pretty much every adult human alive has a population of these mites living on them.
Also called eyelash mites, they’re too small to see with the naked eye. They’re mostly transparent, and at about .3 millimeters long, it would take about five face adult mites laid end...
2019-05-18 00:29:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Honey bees make honey from nectar to fuel their flight – and our sweet tooth. But they also need pollen for protein. So they trap, brush and pack it into baskets on their legs to make a special food called bee bread.
When a bee lands on a flower, it nibbles and licks off the pollen, which sticks to its head. It wipes the pollen off its eyes and antennae with a brush on each of its front legs, using them in tandem like windshield wipers. It also cleans the pollen off its mouth part, an...
2019-05-03 20:56:52 +0000 UTC View Post