Hi Deep Peeps! 🕳️👀Western subterranean termites are flying your way next week in our next Deep Look video on Tuesday, Feb. 1. Each year, western subterranean termite colonies send up winged termites called alates (seen in the photo above) to find a mate and start their own colonies. In California, alates push through the softened earth on a warm, calm day after the first big rain that ends the dry summer.
Last year, that day was October 22 in parts of the San Fr...
2022-01-28 03:30:00 +0000 UTC
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The Australian walking stick is a master of deception, but a twig is just one of its many disguises. Before it’s even born, it mimics a seed. In its youth it looks and acts like an ant. Only when it has grown up does it settle into its final, leafy form. Along the way, it fools predators at every turn.
We hope you enjoy this early look at our first episode of 2022! You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, January 11 from YouTube. Thanks!
2022-01-07 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps! We are Baaack! Our first episode of 2022 on 1/11 is about the Australian walking stick. These sneaky and dazzling creatures don’t have just one trick up their leaves – they have three! Their eggs look like seeds. Their babies look like red-headed spider ants – and only as adults do they wear into that trademark leafy stick disguise.
An adult female Australian walking stick insect, like the one in the above photo, is a slow-moving vegetarian and can get to be ...
2022-01-05 04:17:00 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps! Well, another year has flown by and we’ve certainly had fun making our Deep Look videos and sharing them with you. We have exciting new videos coming your way starting Jan. 11. Until then, we wish you all a very happy new year and leave you with this playlist of the Top 5 videos you watched that were produced this year. We’ll be back to bug you in 2022! ...
2021-12-30 21:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Happy Winter Solstice to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere! ⛄We’ve recently had some snow in Northern California’s mountains 🏔️🏔️ and that’s got us thinking about ❄️snowflakes.❄️ We've all heard that every snowflake is unique. But in a lab in sunny Southern California, a physicist has learned to control the way snowflakes grow. Can he really make twins?
Check out this video about the science of snowflakes from our archives. It's one of the very few we hav...
2021-12-21 18:21:00 +0000 UTC
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Did you know that ladybugs 🐞🐞🐞spend most of their lives alone, gorging themselves on aphids? But every winter they take to the wind, soaring over cities and fields to assemble for a ladybug bash. It's their best chance to find a mate. (You might see this ladybug holiday party✨🎉🐞🐞🎉✨ if you are in the parks of the Oakland Hills in the East Bay, so watch where you are walking!) Enjoy this fan-favorite episode from our archives: 2021-12-18 01:23:59 +0000 UTC
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We thought you'd like to know California newts are on the move right now! Every winter, they leave the safety of their forest burrows and travel as far as three miles to mate in the pond where they were born.
If you are out for a hike in one of coastal California's many parks, be on the look out. In the San Francisco Bay Area, try the pond at the UC Botanical Garden, where we filmed our episode.
Discover more about these semiaquatic creatures with this episode from our archi...
2021-12-09 23:21:00 +0000 UTC
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They might look like harmless grasshoppers, but locusts have an appetite for destruction. When the conditions are right, they transform from mild-mannered loners into gregarious partiers. They swarm, causing chaos and suffering at the level of a biblical plague. So what sets them off?
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, November 23 from YouTube. Thanks!
2021-11-19 17:27:31 +0000 UTC
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Our next episode on Tuesday, Nov. 23, is all about locusts! Producers Josh Cassidy and Gabriela Quirós traveled to Arizona State University to film with the Global Locust Initiative. Behind several sets of doors, the researchers there keep secure colonies of locusts for study.
Locusts might look like innocent grasshoppers, but under the right conditions, they are one of the most dangerou...
2021-11-16 17:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Our next episode on Tuesday, Nov. 9, is all about kissing bugs!
Producer Gabriela Quirós and cinematographer Josh Cassidy headed to Arizona in September to film these blood-sucking, dangerous insects. When bitten, their saliva can cause a potentially deadly allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.
...
2021-11-02 15:54:36 +0000 UTC
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On first impression, skeleton shrimp anatomy is confusing. These crustaceans use a funky assortment of body parts to move around like inchworms, feed on bits of sea garbage, stage boxing matches, and make lots of clingy babies.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, October 26 from YouTube. Thanks!
2021-10-22 15:55:59 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps!
We’re very excited to bring you a creepy, crawly night of Deep Look at our very first in-person event since the pandemic! Come join us on Wednesday, October 27, at 7pm at the KQED headquarters in San Francisco for a screening and discussion about some of our Halloween favorites!
You’ll get to watch four stomac...
2021-10-19 20:01:39 +0000 UTC
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Our next episode on Tuesday, 10/26 is about skeleton shrimp! These thin, elongated creatures have an unusual body design, even for a crustacean. Producer Mike Seely lifted one up in the above photo –– which was fine once he placed it back into the water. Despite their diminutive, scrawny stature, they are surprisingly hardy creatures.
2021-10-19 01:15:01 +0000 UTC
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Tadpole shrimp are neither tadpoles nor shrimp. They’re time-traveling crustaceans called triops. Their eggs can spend years – even decades – frozen in time, waiting to hatch. When California rice growers flood their fields, they create the perfect conditions for hordes of these ravenous creatures to awaken.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, October 12 from YouTube. Thanks!
2021-10-08 17:49:40 +0000 UTC
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When is a shrimp not a shrimp? When it’s a tadpole shrimp! We have an upcoming episode about tadpole shrimp from producer Josh Cassidy, and they’re not tadpoles, either. These tiny crustaceans called Triops live in the rice fields of California, where their eggs can spend years –– even decades –– frozen in time, waiting to hatch.
For this episode, Josh got his feet wet filming in rice...
2021-10-05 15:11:00 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps,
We’re excited to share some wonderful news!
Our episode "Born Pregnant: Aphids Invade with an Onslaught of Clones" won the Animal Behavior Short Form category of this year's Jackson Wild Media Awards.
We’re proud to say this is our fourth award, and we're grateful for your continued support.
You can watch the award-winning episode here!
2021-09-30 17:54:43 +0000 UTC
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Under the bright yellow petals of a tarweed plant, an insect known as the assassin bug kills its caterpillar victim by stabbing it over and over. But does this perpetrator have an accomplice? Sticky droplets all over the plant could be a clue.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, September 28 from YouTube. Thanks!
2021-09-24 15:57:30 +0000 UTC
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It takes a lot of time and effort to produce each episode of Deep Look, and we couldn’t do it without the help of scientists and other valuable collaborators who have closely worked with us over the years. We’re introducing several of these wonderful partners to you in a series of short profiles so you can get a deeper look at their expertise.
Meet Bill Donahue, the owner and laboratory director of 2021-09-23 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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We have a new episode coming up about assassin bugs. Producer Gabriela Quirós and the Deep Look team headed to Folsom, California, in July to film the assassin bugs living on a patch of tarweeds.
An owlet moth caterpillar and an assassin bug face off on a tarweed plant. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)
Assassin bugs use their sharp mouthparts to stab the caterpillars of owlet moths...
2021-09-21 16:30:27 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps,
We’ve got an episode in the works about kissing bugs! These are big, colorful insects with a long head that feed on your blood and can pass on the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can be deadly. It’s the most common parasitic disease in Latin America and some 300,000 infected people are believed to live in the U.S.
Do you have any questions about kissing bugs for our team? Post them here, and we’ll try to answer them in the video!
Photo ...
2021-09-16 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Most damselflies prefer sunny spots, but the quirky San Francisco forktail damselfly digs the fogginess of its hometown. When they hook up, they do it in style – linking their delicate bodies in a heart shape, then flying tandem for an hour or more after.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, September 14 from YouTube. Thanks!
2021-09-10 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps,
It takes a lot of time and effort to produce each episode of Deep Look, and we couldn’t do it without the help of scientists and other valuable collaborators who have closely worked with us over the years. We’re introducing several of these wonderful partners to you in a series of short profiles so you can get a deeper look at their expertise.
Meet Kerry Padgett, Chief of the High Risk Pathogens Section at the Microbia...
2021-09-09 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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We have a new episode coming up about damselflies! In the photo above, that’s producer Mike Seely working with cinematographer Josh Cassidy on location in San Francisco.
These insects are cousins of dragonflies and San Francisco has its very own: the San Francisco forktail damselfly. Most damselflies prefer sunnier, warmer places, but they’ve adapted to the city’s cool fog. Though biologists are working to conserve this species, this damselfly might go extinct as climate change ma...
2021-09-07 15:07:26 +0000 UTC
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Horseshoe crabs may look scary, but when it's springtime in Delaware Bay, millions of these arthropods show they're lovers, not fighters. They lay masses of blue-green eggs up on the shore, which wait for the right moment to pop and release the larvae within to the sea.
P.S. This is a special collaboration with another PBS Digital Studios series: Overview
2021-08-27 21:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Dogs have a famously great sense of smell, but what makes their noses so much more powerful than ours? They're packing some sophisticated equipment inside that squishy schnozz. Check out the cool animation in our episode, "How Your Dog's Nose Knows So Much" that helps illustrate how they smell so well. 👃
2021-08-26 15:11:03 +0000 UTC
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We’ve got a special episode of Deep Look coming up that’s a collaboration with another series within the PBS Digital Studios family: Overview! Overview is part of PBS Terra, the home of other science and nature shows such as “2021-08-24 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps,
It takes a lot of time and effort to produce each episode of Deep Look, but we couldn’t do it without the help of scientists and other valuable collaborators who have worked closely with us over the years. We’re introducing several of these wonderful partners to you in a series of short profiles so you can get a deeper look at their expertise.
Meet Loa Ortiz, a sixth grade math and sci...
2021-08-19 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Hey Deep Peeps,
We’re excited to share some wonderful news!
Our episode "Born Pregnant: Aphids Invade with an Onslaught of Clones" is a finalist in the Animal Behavior Short Form category of the 2021 Jackson Wild Media Awards.
We’re proud to say this is our fifth n...
2021-08-09 16:28:49 +0000 UTC
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Ever wonder why cats' tongues feel like sandpaper? There's a purrrfectly good reason, and it's not vanity. For cats, staying clean is a matter of life and death. And their tongue, specially equipped for the job, is just one of the things that makes cats such successful predators.
Learn more with the video above, and enjoy this video about how kittens go from clueless to cute, too! 😻
2021-08-08 16:11:00 +0000 UTC
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While you’re enjoying a day at the beach, female bumblebee-mimic digger bees are hard at work nearby building a different kind of sand castle. This one’s not for play – it’s part of the nest where their offspring will grow.
We hope you enjoy this first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it with other science fans on Tuesday, August 10 from YouTube. Thanks!
2021-08-06 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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