Summary: Is the key theory about how we evolved from apes based on mistaken evidence? Since 1974, the 3.2-million-year-old fossil dubbed "Lucy" has been considered humankind's prime ancestor. Now, a fossil recently unearthed in Kenya by distinguished paleontologist Dr. Meave Leakey is rewriting the theories. This program examines the implications of Flat-Faced Man, a bipedal hominid just as old as Lucy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: The modern consequences of an ancient human obsession, the fear of inheriting bad genes, are explored in this program. In Hiroshima, Steve Jones speaks with hibakusha-children of atom bomb survivors, shunned as dangerous mates-and assesses the genetic risk that their children will be mutants. The royal blood disease, hemophilia, is traced through the genes, but Jones scientifically disproves...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: When On the Origin of Species appeared in 1859, it quickly took hold in the popular imagination-but it also glossed over significant and rather disturbing questions. This program explores Darwin's ideas on human evolution, which he developed and made public toward the end of his life. Science interpreter Jim Doherty reveals how Darwin searched for parallels between humans and animals through a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: How do humans influence changes in other species? Has Homo sapiens itself stopped evolving? This program explores natural selection as an ongoing phenomenon, showing how evolutionary processes continue to shape the future of all life on Earth. Exploring the competition for resources, territory, and mates that occurs in any ecosystem, the video illustrates how species differentiation takes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Did the ancestors of the human race go through a crucial semi-aquatic phase? This balanced program examines the latest evidence that water played a major role in human evolution and assesses how it stands up to the traditional Savanna Theory proposed by Darwin. Preeminent critics and adherents of the Aquatic Ape Theory discuss such key points as humans' unique diving reflex and voluntary breath...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines how genetic studies are being used divisively by blacks and whites to prove racial superiority. A sociologist uses poor black IQ test performances as a basis for recommending welfare cuts. Controversial New York University professor Leonard Jeffries discusses melanin, the pigment responsible for black skin, as stimulating intellectual and artistic abilities in blacks....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, genetic teams in England and Finland study how defective genes can be altered to halt transmission of disease through the generations. In England, geneticist John Burn discovers a woman's lethal cancer gene, inherited from her father. She undergoes early treatment that saves her life. Thirty genetic diseases exist in Finland. Steve Jones traces a defective gene in one family,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Steve Jones investigates what constitutes Native American blood, then follows three individuals as they use DNA matching of a female gene to attempt to confirm a genetic link between themselves and their Pequot ancestors. How Native Americans were disconnected from their heritage is examined by several tribal members, and the point is made that some want to establish their Indian bloodlines to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: An extraterrestrial biologist would probably not hesitate to classify Homo sapiens as just another chimpanzee. After all, the two species share 98 percent of their DNA-and yet what a difference that two percent makes. This program investigates how such similar primates became so very dissimilar.and how humans, having reached the point where they are little hindered by natural selection, are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Steve Jones travels from Israel's Plains of Armageddon to Africa's Great Zimbabwe to solve the age-old riddle of what happened to the fabled lost tribes of Israel. Genealogists use DNA to trace the connection between a Samaritan tribe and non-indigenous Jewish groups, and to trace the ancestry of Mormons, who claim to be descended from a lost tribe. In Africa, a tribe shows anthropological...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: When paleontologist Per Ahlberg discovered a strange fossil overlooked for decades at a museum in Latvia, he knew he was onto something. In this astounding program, Ahlberg and Jenny Clack, of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology; Ted Daeschler, of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences; and Keith Thomson, of the Oxford University Museum, reexamine the evolution of the first...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, this program shows how Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution and explores its ramifications in today's scientific community. Renowned natural history interpreter David Attenborough travels the globe, examining fresh evidence for Darwinian thought and illustrating why it is more relevant than ever. Viewers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Are some people born evil? Steve Jones addresses this question by examining the genetic and social factors that contribute to crime and antisocial behavior. The work of Dutch geneticist Hans Brunner and his discovery of the "crime gene"-the genetic marker for violence-is examined, as lawyers seize upon the research to defend a murderer. Los Angeles geneticist David Comings, who runs a clinic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006