The WORST episodes of The Nature of Things

#1 - Getting Us Typed

Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 7/26/1962

Examines work of Dr. William Sheldon, who has spent about 30 years gathering statistics about the human physique, classifying body types, and correlating this information to medical and psychiatric studies.

#2 - Long Point

Season 23 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/10/1982

Long point marsh is a sandspit on the Northern shore of Lake Erie. Discovered in 1670 by French explorers, this wildlife area has kept many of it's original features and is now an important habitat for many species of animals and migrating birds.

#3 - Japan: The Superachievers (1)

Season 23 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/24/1982

The landmarks of Japanese science and technology since the end of World War II are highlighted in the first of two related programs. The ancient craft of Samurai swordmaking and computer based steel production are also examined.

#4 - Japan: The Nation Family (2)

Season 23 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/1/1982

The everyday life of Japanese workers is traced through their values, their leisure activities and the mechanization of their factories.

#5 - Edge of the Cold (2)

Season 23 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/15/1982

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation produced four half-hour films about the Macquarie Islands. This episode of The Nature of Things compiles two of them. The first was originally entitled 'Man the Hunter, Man the Keeper.' The second was originally entitled 'The Dominant Male.' The program looks at the delicate ecological balance which must be maintained for the populations of elephant seals and seabirds on the Macquarie Islands. Narrated by Sir Edmund Hillary.[347] The other two episodes were compiled into a Nature of Things broadcast of 28 October 1981.

#6 - Newborn

Season 23 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/12/1983

A look at the first moments of an infant's life and its adaptation to the outside world.

#7 - Decade of Delay / RH Laboratory / Hawaii Telescope

Season 23 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/19/1983

Decade of Delay: A look at what can be done to make cars safer, and an inquiry into why it is not being done. RH Laboratory: A visit to the special Rh. laboratory in Winnipeg, which was the world pioneer in combating Rh disease, an infant condition that results from the presence or absence of the rhesus factor in individual blood cells. Hawaii Telescope: A look at the telescope and observatory erected by a joint venture of Canada and France on Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii.

#8 - Water: Friend or Foe?

Season 23 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/27/1983

Holland's Delta Project, a task involving difficult measures to reclaim land from the sea, is detailed.

#9 - Magnet Earth

Season 23 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/2/1983

A one-hour film from the BBC series Horizon exploring the effects of the Earth's magnetic field on animals and, to a lesser extent, humans.

#10 - Spas: Magic or Medicine?

Season 24 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/26/1983

The host David Suzuki visit some of these stations in Japan and elsewhere in the world and lay eyes on the therapies that are available there. In addition, it will parallel between the American attitude toward this form of treatment and that of the inhabitants of other countries.

#11 - On The Track of the Wild Otter

Season 23 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/30/1983

The social life of one of nature's shyest creatures is examined in a year-round study of its behavior.

#12 - Swimming / Diabetes: Beating the Needle / Glass Eyes

Season 24 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1983

Season Premiere: Dr. David Suzuki profiles veteran Canadian swimmer Dan Thompson, the lifestyles of diabetics and the manufacturing of glass eyes.

#13 - Cobra: India's Good Snake / Blue Babies / High Flight

Season 24 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/1983

Cobra: India's Good Snake: Ignorance and superstition surround the cobra, threatening the members of this species which is helpful to man. Blue Babies: David Suzuki talks with cardiologist Peter Olley of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto concerning the pharmaceutical and medical treatment of infants born with a congenital heart defect. High Flight: Research is beginning to uncover the reasons why birds can fly at high altitudes that would cause brain damage in humans.

#14 - Animal Imposters

Season 24 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/1983

The clever methods of various creatures either to hunt or to avoid being hunted are examined in locations including Central America and Australia.

#15 - The Cathedral Engineers / Neem: A Natural Insecticide / Bluebird Trails

Season 24 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/1983

The Cathedral Engineers: Shot on location in France and New York City, the program looks at the history and philosophy of European gothic cathedrals. Neem: A Natural Insecticide: Products of the neem, one of the world's most useful trees, are used to make everything from soap to insecticide. Bluebird Trails: Pushed out of prime nesting sites by the introduction of the english sparrow and starling in 1900, the North American bluebird is making a comeback thanks to specially constructed bluebird boxes built across eastern North America.

#16 - Suzuki@80

Season 55 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/24/2016

David Suzuki is celebrating his 80th birthday in March, and we’re planning a very special program. After more than 50 years in the public eye, you may think you’ve seen Suzuki in just about every way possible: almost naked, confronting industry, skateboarding down the street, and even buried up to his neck in a bog. No wonder we all think we know who he is, but in this deeply personal show you’ll meet a David you haven’t seen before.

#17 - Bring Back My Bonnie

Season 23 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/3/1982

A look at recovery after strokes. In previous years, strokes were frequently fatal, and brain damage was seen as permanent. Now, all this is changing. It has been found that with therapy many stroke victims can recover some or even most of the functions they have lost.

#18 - Excursion Into Hell

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/26/1964

Centuries ago, people in warmer parts of the earth believed that a dread disease was contracted from unhealthy air generated in swamps. From this belief came the word "malaria," which means "bad air". The word is still used to describe a parasitic disease that remains one of the world's major public health problems. Efforts to find and isolate the causes of malaria make one of the greatest scientific detective stories of all time. Mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles were found to be implicated. But so far, their control is far from accomplished. Program features Dr. A. Murray Fallis, parasitologist with the Ontario Research Foundation and professor at the University of Toronto. Host is Lister Sinclair.

#19 - Good and Evil

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/1965

#20 - Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/28/1965

Professors Patterson Hume and Donald Ivey dispute Mark Twain's claim that: "There are lies, damn lies and statistics"; or in other words, "you can prove anything with statistics.

#21 - Animals and Man

Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/3/1965

A series studying the animal kingdom, and man's place in it, through comparisons of anatomy, function, and behavior.

#22 - Animals on Land

Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/1965

How animals get from place to place, including burrowing, crawling, climbing trees, running, and jumping.

#23 - Animal Adaptation (1)

Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/24/1965

A look at how animals have developed special means of coping with the environments — the long neck of the giraffe, the coat of the polar bear.

#24 - Animal Adaptation (2)

Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/31/1965

A look at the process of natural selection by which animals have developed special means of coping with their environments: the long neck of the giraffe, the coat of the polar bear, the digging claws of the mole.

#25 - Animals and Food

Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/7/1965

How animals locate, obtain, process and eat food using "anatomical tools": beaks, claws etc.