Back to Show
Human Elements
Butterfly Adaptation
Season 4
Episode 1
Can butterflies evolve to adapt to climate change? Dr. Gwen Shlichta studies cabbage white butterflies to monitor their feeding patterns at controlled temperatures. This data, compared to Dr. Shlichta’s data from 25 years ago, can be used to predict how other organisms may adapt to climate change in the future.
Support Provided By

6:36
Biologist Steven Clark bushwhacks his way up a trail as he searches for the Gorge daisy.

4:22
Ken Wu has always been fascinated by trees. Now he’s working to save them.

3:38
Vikram Baliga is turning everything we know about flight on its head.

3:57
An astronaut’s perspective on her work changes as she looks back at the Earth.

4:33
A fire scientist connects his experience working the land with fire in his home community.

3:58
JK Yang sees endless possibilities in a single sheet of paper.

4:36
An astronomer studies the moment a star dies and begins to transform into a black hole.

5:26
Looking for the origins of life in the algae that grows high in the mountains.

5:58
What is it like to study an animal that is almost impossible to see?

6:08
Dr. Bonnie Baird is a translator. But the languages she decodes aren’t any we know.

5:21
We don’t know yet if alien life exists. But if they do, they might think like an octopus.