Enlightening but gory body of work
The scientists have done it on TV, via a mobile phone app, and now in a book format that will appeal to every curious child, adult and natural scientist. They are the science world’s equivalent of TV’s gung-ho Jackass gang, all togged out in orange overalls like the cast of Misfits, and they’ve had the knives out for creatures far bigger than themselves in places from South Africa to west Cork, and from Australia to Zambia, filming from A to Z.
Television can satisfy, and also prompt, the strangest curiosities, blood lusts and macabre machinations, through some ground-breaking series, from the 1990s’ The Human Body through to the Victorian freak shows and plastination exhibitions of anatomist Dr Gunther Von Hagens. Advances in camera technology can bring images back from the deepest regions, around the globe, and in living cells. But, sometimes, a large, sharp knife and a saw can be just as good — and viewers of Channel 4’s Inside Nature’s Giants will have seen blades and weaponry wielded with gut-spilling aplomb.
