science

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives rather than just read about it. In short: Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives is a 1989 four-part BBC documentary series concerning the discovery of fossils. It is written and presented by David Attenborough, produced by Mike Salisbury, and was originally broadcast on BBC Two in April 1989.

Key takeaways

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives is a 1989 four-part BBC documentary series concerning the discovery of fossils. It is written and presented by David Attenborough, produced by Mike Salisbury, and was originally broadcast on BBC Two in April 1989. It was co-produced by TBS and aired on that channel in April 1991. Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives was made between the second and third installments of Attenborough's Life series: The Living Planet and The Trials of Life, respectively. The study of rocks and their ancient secrets was something of a boyhood passion for David Attenborough. In this series, his enthusiasm for the subject is undiminished. With the help of expert palaeontologists, fossil hunters and (for the time) modern animation techniques, Attenborough attempts to show how life evolved in Earth's distant past. To do so, he travels the globe to visit the world's most famous fossil sites.

Release 2 Entertain published the series on DVD (catalog number BBCDVD1466) on 27 September 2004.

List of episodes

External links Lost Worlds Vanished Lives at the British Film Institute Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives at IMDb Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives at the Paleontology Documentary Wiki

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

In research: Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980s British documentary television series, 1989 British television series debuts, 1989 British television series endings, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives in simple terms?

Why does Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives.