There is no doubt that documentaries are a very important knowledge material, as they present information in a close form to the general reader, supported visually and presented in a narrative context that helps you to overcome the usual boredom of learning.
The most dense documentaries are the complete series, which combine depth of knowledge due to their length and attractiveness due to their visual nature, and it can even be said that one documentary series makes you need to read a book for beginners in the same scope.
And because Al Jazeera Documentary is the most important and most productive Arab platform in the field of documentaries, it was necessary for us in the Science Department in "
Meidan
" to shed light on it, to present from it a set of series of scientific documentaries that really deserve to spend some of your time with them.
Let us also make it clear that Al Jazeera Documentary production in scientific documentaries is abundant, but we focused on series, especially those that you can follow on the Internet.
super nature
Well, let's start with biomimetics, which is the imitation of models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. Birds fly, so we imitate them and we make the plane. But this documentary from Al Jazeera Documentary delves into, in 5 long episodes, characteristics of nature that are supernatural by our technical standards, including For example, how to stick without adhesive, including properties such as movement, resistance and structure.
The four-and-a-half billion years that living things have spent in evolution have helped them to adapt amazingly to their environments, so our human technologies, when we are only three hundred thousand years old (or perhaps a little more), are nothing compared to all this ingenuity.
science lab
Now let's get to know the "Science Lab", a series that Al Jazeera Documentary Channel started adding on YouTube recently, presented in 9 episodes for a diverse age group starting from adolescence but not ending there, where everyone can learn from it.
At first glance, the episodes seem separate, but they are connected in the context of "Basics of Science for Beginners." Among the 12 episodes of the series released so far, 8 of them were in the basics of physics, one on gravity, another on fluid mechanics, and one on quantum mechanics, and others. As for the rest of the episodes, they were in Scopes of Mathematics, Geology, and Biology.
The series is also characterized by a very easy method of presentation, along with an excellent visual presentation of the laws of physics and their impact, and although the series is concerned with presenting and facilitating physical laws, it does not neglect the historical aspect, for example, in the gravity ring we see how humans saw it for thousands of years, all the way to Newton and then Einstein , and so in all episodes of physics.
The golden age of science
This is one of the most wonderful things presented in the history of Arab science. It is a series of episodes presented by Jamil Sadiq, better known as Jim Al-Khalili, an Iraqi-British physicist, writer and broadcaster, professor of theoretical physics and head of the Department of Public Participation in Science at the University of Surrey, who is also one of the most famous documentaries in the the scientist.
In this series, Al-Khalili focuses on a history full of achievements presented by the Arabs in the eras of their great renaissance in the fields of astronomy, optics, engineering, chemistry, medicine and mathematics.
In 6 short episodes (about 25 minutes per episode) you can actually learn a lot about the achievements of the Arabs in the fields of science, especially since the style of the episodes and their visual presentation are wonderful and easy for all people. Arabic is usually cool academic, for professionals, and even the simpler ones are usually boring for readers.
bee masters
This is a unique series. Wildlife documentaries usually focus on lions, tigers, leopards, predators in general, night and day life in distant forests, or the vast ocean world, but rarely will you find material that specializes completely, over 10 medium-term episodes, in Studying bees only, its types that spread from New Zealand to South America to Europe to Africa, each episode of this series talks about one of the types of bees and people's relationship with it.
In fact, the bee is an object worthy of contemplation, and it has advantages that give it this entitlement, as it is a very ingenious model of self-organization, so that the intelligence of the members of the group gather together to build one supernatural being, which has wonderful abilities in behavior and decision-making.
Find the series on Al Jazeera Documentary Channel on the Dailymotion platform.
Think before you spend
In this series, New Zealand psychologist and writer Nigel Latta takes us on a journey into the psychology of money, branching out into a very important branch that won a number of Nobel Prizes recently, which is behavioral economics.
The documentary asks: What is money to you?
Does that mean anything?
In other words, the documentary argues that your belief about money, just your previous idea of it, may be one of the reasons why you are rich and poor.
Later, the documentary moves on to other very interesting questions such as: Why does money affect us so much that we seem crazy in its presence?
Is there a relationship between money and happiness?
Why is it so hard for us to save our money?
How do children deal with money?
And finally: why do we spend more on credit cards than on net money, when it's our money after all?
The documentary comes in 6 short episodes, really interesting and useful both cognitively and practically, its presentation is simple and comedic, and it argues with you in every question until you reach the answer with its presenter.
Find the series here on Al Jazeera Documentary Online.
Secrets of the Solar System
This series does not only tell about the wonders of the solar system in 8 long episodes, from the sun to Pluto, but it shows how to explore those very far sides of our planet, through the words of the heroes of those explorations, who are explorers of a very special kind, looking in the dark far away We have billions of kilometers.
This exploratory nature throws on the episodes a degree of enjoyment besides its scientific nature, which reduces boredom to a minimum. Also, the stories from the scientists and engineers themselves give the episodes a degree of warmth and excitement, as people usually tend to accept the knowledge presented in the form of the life experience of its makers.
The mystery of the disappearance of giants
This series tells the story of eight giant prehistoric animals and their surviving descendants today.
The first and second episodes examine four amazing animals, seeking to explain why they were so huge and why they later disappeared. Then the next four episodes turn to the giant animals that live among us today, exploring their evolutionary history and past with the help of specialized biologists and paleontologists to find out whether their ancestors suffered due to the enormity of their sizes.
The secrets of centenarians
A promising doctor, nutritionist and herbalist decides to go on a journey together, over 4 long episodes, to search behind the secrets of long life in four regions of the world, which are known to contain a large number of centenarians who are over the age of ninety and one hundred.
The episodes ask: Why do some have a long life and others do not?
Is it in the genes?
Meaning that we have nothing to do with it and it is not possible - at least now - to develop it, or is it related to lifestyle, diet, for example, or something else?
Besides a simplified set of medical knowledge, in this series you actually meet a group of centenarians who talk before you about their lifestyle, their experiences, and what they think was the reason for their happiness one day!
Indonesia, the Amazon and the discovery of the unknown
It is really interesting, and also important, to get to know the windows of others from which they look into this world, and nothing is more inviting to contemplation than the indigenous peoples, those who still live primitive lives, but nonetheless hold unique perspectives, take The Bajau, for example, in Indonesia, those who do not live on land but in the sea, and endure staying under water for five minutes or more, as for the Tana Toraja, they have really strange burial rituals, for a moment you think they are unacceptable, but as soon as you understand their contexts, the matter changes, in this documentary Issued in 6 episodes of Al Jazeera Documentary, you will not address the anthropological scientific aspects of these peoples, but you will at least get to know their unique worlds.
This series published a part related to the Amazon and its indigenous peoples, a region of the world that is still the focus of global research, containing a group of the most amazing phenomena, living creatures and ancient civilizations.
This series - and the previous one - are not scientific in the understandable sense, but rather are exploratory series in which the Jordanian documentary presenter Louay Al-Otaibi revolves around the country of God.
Well, this is a really hearty meal that exceeded the barrier of 70 episodes, but completing it is like completing about 10 books, which is an excellent rate for a beginner who wants to learn about the wonders of this world and its sciences. Of course, our focus was mainly on the scientific aspects, but a short search on Al Jazeera Documentary page in YouTube and the platform itself will give you an opportunity to get acquainted with other great chains, especially in the customs and heritage of Arab peoples, their culture and arts, down to their fashion and distinctive dishes on the dining table.