The Thread of Life

If we compare ourselves with our genetically closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, we have few physical advantages. We are far weaker, cannot move nearly as fast, and do not have the same climbing capabilities. Instead, humans excel in areas such as architecture, religion, science, language, writing, art, culture, and ideas. These achievements are due to our larger brain that contain billions of neurons. It was the rapid growth of our brain, originating about 2 million years ago, that allowed us to be the predominant species of the world. What caused this rapid growth of our cerebral cortex? Researchers worldwide have asked this question for many years, but now there finally seems to be an answer.

Many geneticists and archaeologists have long surmised that human life began in Africa. Dr. Spencer Wells, one of a group of scientists studying the origin of human life, offers evidence and theories to support such a thesis in this PBS special. He claims that Africa was populated by only a few thousand people that some deserted their homeland in a conquest that has resulted in global domination.

A well-preserved mammoth carcass is found in the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, opening up the possibility of a world-changing “Jurassic Park” moment in genetics.

Three million years ago, camels roamed through Greenland’s endless forests and our ancestors lived in the trees. It all came to an end with the Ice Ages. What died and what survived, as natural selection shaped the evolutionary tree during this epochal shift from hot to cold? Until now, scientists have known less about the natural world before the Ice Age than they did about the age of dinosaurs, which ended 64 million years ago. A new discovery is set to reveal this lost world, species by species. Led by Danish gene-hunter Eske Willerslev, a team of scientists for the first time in history is sequencing DNA from before the Ice Age. The picture that emerges is of a hot planet, when forests blanketed the Arctic and carbon levels matched those in our atmosphere today. Is this a portrait of our own climate future?

Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures—1.4 million different species discovered so far, with perhaps another 50 million to go? The source of life's endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin brought forth his revolutionary idea of natural selection. But Darwin's radical insights raised as many questions as they answered. What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another? To what degree do different animals rely on the same genetic toolkit? And how did we evolve?

Can science help us understand these crimes?

Director Dominique Leclerc spent years depending on medical devices for her survival. Then, looking for alternative solutions, she entered the world of emerging technologies. Posthumans follows her as she meets with cyborgs, biohackers, and transhumanists who are trying to use these technologies to outsmart illness, aging—and even death. The documentary looks at pressing ethical and political questions that are sure to impact the future of our species.

Through our subject Adam, we reveal the incredible changes and forces that take all humankind from Cradle to Grave.

How did your body become the complicated, quirky, amazing machine it is today? Anatomist Neil Shubin uncovers the answers in this 3-part science series that looks at human evolution. Using fossils, embryos and genes, he reveals how our bodies are the legacy of ancient fish, reptiles and primates — the ancestors you never knew were in your family tree.

A dangerous idea has threatened the American Dream from the beginning - the belief that some groups and individuals are inherently superior to others and more deserving of fundamental rights. Such biological determinism provided an excuse for some of America's most shameful history. And now it's back. This documentary reveals how biologically determined politics has disenfranchised women and people of color, provided a rationale for state sanctioned crimes committed against America's most vulnerable citizens, and now gains new traction under the Trump administration.

10,000 years ago, the European forests were inhabited by huge cattle with protruding horns: the aurochs. Then man began to domesticate them and created the cow. By crossing species, he adapted the animals over time so that they increasingly met his needs and desires. Industrial livestock farming was born. From then on, beef cattle and dairy cows such as the Holstein cow were bred. Milk production tripled within a few decades. Today, the cow of the future is produced by artificial insemination. By selecting a few breeding bulls that are considered to be top bulls, rapid genetic progress is ensured.

After a woman's at-home DNA test reveals multiple half-siblings, she discovers a shocking scheme involving donor sperm and a popular fertility doctor.

In a television first, Fat Family Tree sets out to prove that unlocking the secrets of a fat family’s genes can help provide the answer to their lifelong weight problems. Presented by Dr Dawn Harper (Embarrassing Bodies), Fat Family Tree uses cutting edge genetics to decode the genes of an overweight family for whom all other attempts to shed the pounds have not worked. Discovering how the family’s genes have put them at risk of excessive weight gain is the first step to devising a diet to help them beat their genes. Based on the latest science, the programme’s “gene-busting” diet also promises fail safe diet tips that could help all of us lose weight.

Lucie was born with a protruding ear that she got from her mother. In this documentary she tries to find answers in her fathers' features.

Human genetics is one of the most exciting fields in science at the moment. Not only does it advance exponentially fast, it is also a field of study that will very soon affect our daily lives. We will all have to deal with the possibilities and technologies that human genetics have to offer, today and in the coming years. Quite a few questions and dilemmas still have to be answered by us. Do I want to know everything that can be found out from my DNA? And who is allowed to use and read my genetic code? My doctor? The police? The chef of my favourite restaurant? Also, what genetic technologies do I want to use? Do I want to clone my dog, choose my children’s eye colour, or genetically modify them to give them extra talents? Do I want others in society to be allowed to do that? The current and future possibilities of human genetics are simply overwhelming. They are both promising and frightening, chilling and delightful.

Le virus qui soigne

Why is music vital to our brain? Through an international scientific and neurological investigation, this film will unveil the mystery of music’s multiple powers in our lives. Learning, growing up, loving, overcoming amnesia, anxiety and pain, and much more…at every stage of our lives, how does music play a decisive role in our development?

Spared by cancer, diabetes and possibly Alzheimer’s, men and women of small stature are intriguing scientists that are trying to postpone age-related illnesses. What mechanisms protect these small Ecuadorian from certain illnesses? From Quito to Los Angeles, via Tel-Aviv, the film follows the revolutionary research, step-by-step, that is attempting to understand and prevent diseases such as cancer. And outlines ways to live in good health… for as long as possible.

This educational film from 1970 traces the inheritance of traits such as sex, eye color, height, and weight, showing the role of chromosomes and genes in determining their development.

Gregor Mendel