Are we still evolving?.

Date:
2011
  • Videos

About this work

Description

Presented by Alice Roberts, this programme attempts to work out if we, as humans, are still evolving. Since Darwin's time, scientists have wondered whether our use of culture and technology has put us out of reach of natural selection and halted our evolution. Roberts examines the bones of a 33,000 year old male and discovers that the skeleton is almost identical to a modern skeleton. Human skin colour has changed but have humans changed in more fundamental ways beneath the surface? We hear about Cynthia Beall's research with mountain-living Sherpas in Nepal who have clearly adapted to living in a high altitude environment with little oxygen. Pardis Sabeti believes we can chart evolutionary changes in our bodies and Mark Thomas describes his research into lactose intolerance. It becomes apparent to Roberts that our changes to our world have brought about changes to us, perhaps more so than changes in nature external to us. Steve Jones discusses the patterns of life and death in the last 10,000 years which proved that natural selection has slowed down. Stephen Stearns has mapped the future evolution of Framingham, US - he believes evolution is still going on and Jeff Steinberg shows thedevelopments in the process of making designer babies - choice of sex is something he routinely does now but although the technology is available for him to also determine hair and eye colour, many people are against this kind of manipulation is

Publication/Creation

UK : BBC 2, 2011.

Physical description

Broadcast on 1 March, 2,011.

Copyright note

BBC TV

Notes

Broadcast on 1 March, 2011

Creator/production credits

Written and directed by Olly Bootle.

Type/Technique

Languages

Where to find it

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