Origins of Us

Origins of Us - Brains

Origins of Us – Brains

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Origins of Us – Brains: Dr Alice Roberts explores how our species, Homo sapiens, developed its large brain and asks why humans are the only ape of its kind left on the planet today. The evolution of the human mind is one of the greatest mysteries. It is the basis of religion, philosophy and science. We are special because of our extraordinary brains, and to understand why we think and act the way we do, we need to look at where and why our brains evolved.       The Rift Valley in Kenya is thought to be the crucible […]

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Origins of Us - Guts

Origins of Us – Guts

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Origins of Us – Guts: In this second episode, Dr Alice Roberts charts how our ancestors’ hunt for food has driven the way we look and behave today – from the shape of our face to the way we see, and even the way we attract the opposite sex.       Clues to our ancestors’ diet can be found in some surprising places. Alice goes in search of a lion kill to find out how the tapeworms in lions’ food reveal our ancestors were eating the same diet of big game 1.7 million years ago. She puts her teeth

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Bones

Origins of Us – Bones

Science / 3 minutes of reading / / By

Origins of Us – Bones: In the first episode, Dr Alice Roberts looks at how our skeleton reveals our incredible evolutionary journey. Trekking through the forests of our ancient ancestors, she goes to meet the apes who still live there today – chimpanzees. In six million years we have become very different, and what kick-started this can be found in an extraordinary fossil – Sahelanthropus. A single hole where the spine was attached suggests that our ancestors started the journey to being human by standing upright. We take it for granted, but standing up and walking is surprisingly complex –

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