About this season
The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging. The series is named after an epic poem by Roman philosopher Lucretius: "Dē Rērum Nātūrā" — On the Nature of Things.
Episodes (12)
1. Evolution Update
Aired 24 September 1978
Season premiere: Anthropologist Richard Leakey discusses his work in Africa, and explains the latest techniques by which scientists measure time and age of subjects.
2. Clockwork Atom
Aired 1 October 1978
The phenomenon of man's changing concepts of the world is explored in relation to his desire to measure time more accurately.
3. This Will Do For Today
Aired 8 October 1978
A series of people of varying ages, professions and experiences express their innermost feelings on subjects ranging from dateless Saturday nights to fear of death.
4. Island of Monkeys
Aired 15 October 1978
A study of individual development and group dynamics in a troop of rhesus monkeys in the natural observable environment of Cayo Santiago near Puerto Rico.
5. The Dogon
Aired 29 October 1978
The cliff-dwelling Dogon farmers and their unique culture are studied in their homeland near the Niger River in Mali.[261]
6. Toward The Sun
Aired 5 November 1978
The current efforts in both the United States and Canada to harness the sun as a major resource of heat and power are examined.
7. Portrait Of A Market: Sololá
Aired 12 November 1978
The activities of the economic and social center of Sololá, located on Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, are viewed.[263]
8. Sleep (part 1 of 2)
Aired 26 November 1978
Volunteers undergo an experiment at the Montefiore Sleep Lab in New York which monitors their sleeping-awakening cycles in an attempt to learn more about the body's biological time system.[264]
9. Dreams (part 2 of 2)
Aired 3 December 1978
Analysis of dreams is viewed at several institutions established expressly for that purpose, and those who participate in the experiments are shown as they make notations and give recollections of what they dreamed.
10. Charlie
Aired 17 December 1978
Canadian paleontologist Charlie Sternberg and his work in cataloguing dinosaur fossils in the Albertan Badlands are profiled.
11. The Search
Aired 24 December 1978
The Search follows World Health Organization medical teams on their campaign to vaccinate the against smallpox in Somalia, the world's last location where the disease survives.
12. The Cajuns
Aired 31 December 1978
The descendants of Nova Scotia's Acadians and their lifestyle are profiled at their adopted home, the Bayou Lafourche in southern Louisiana.