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Documentary that goes behind the scenes at the British Museum. A curious breed of experts cares for some of the BM's most important and fragile treasures; they are the conservators. Metals conservator Alex Baldwin is giving a makeover to a corroded Roman bronze statue affectionately known as Charlie, Karen Birkholzer is approaching the end of a six-year project conserving Egyptian wall paintings from the tomb of Nebamun, and gallery manager Brendan Moore has a problem with a stuffed monkey.

From the sea horse that mates in an hypnotic underwater ballet to the rodent who copulates until he literally drops dead, THE NATURE OF SEX spans the globe to illustrate how an astonishing diversity of life forms find their mates and conceive, raise, and protect their offspring. This Web companion to the four-part series takes a close look at the primal instinct that causes animals to come together in order to pass along their genes to the next generation.