The Human Story at the Heart of Science

High above Delhi, India, black kite raptors glide across the polluted sky. The birds of prey seem to float rather than fly, as though drunk on the foul air. But lately the raptors have also begun plunging to Earth with regularity. Scores of them fall out of the sky each day, poisoned by the polluted air, or wounded by toy paper kites flown by residents of the city, who use kite string dipped in glass to undercut one another in competitions.

The raptors, and their place in a rapidly evolving urban ecosystem, play a starring role in a recently released documentary . The film follows two