Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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They're called leaf-cutting ants, but the leaves aren't for eating, they're for farming. Witness the stunning, $1 billion-a-year damage these tiny creatures inflict on global agriculture, and step inside the hidden labs where scientists race to understand the co-evolved "unholy alliance" between insect and fungus.

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Only one scientist in thousands wins a Nobel Prize. Far fewer ever become household names. In this fascinating series, Brian Trueman looks at the work of scientists whose names are relatively unknown outside their own very specialist fields.

This film was first broadcast: 1981

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