Becoming Human Episode 1 First Steps (NOVA)

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Broadcast (2010) First Steps examines the factors that caused us to split from the other great apes. The program explores the fossil of Selam, also known as Lucy's Child. Paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged spent five years carefully excavating the sandstone embedded fossil. NOVA's cameras are there to capture the unveiling of the face, spine, and shoulder blades of this 3.3 million year old fossil child. And NOVA takes viewers "inside the skull" to show how our ancestors' brains had begun to change from those of the apes. Why did leaps in human evolution take place? First Steps explores a provocative big idea that swings of climate were a key factor.

Nothing is more fascinating to us than, well, us. Where did we come from? What makes us human? NOVA's groundbreaking investigation explores how new discoveries are transforming views of our earliest ancestors. Featuring interviews with world renowned scientists, footage shot in the trenches as fossils were unearthed, and stunning computer generated animation, Becoming Human brings early hominids to life, examining how they lived and how we became the creative and adaptable modern humans of today. In the first episode, NOVA encounters Selam, the amazingly complete remains of a 3 million year old child, packed with clues to why we split from the apes, came down from the trees, and started walking upright. In gripping forensic detail, the second episode investigates the riddle of Turkana Boy a tantalizing fossil of Homo erectus, the first ancestor to leave Africa and colonize the globe. What led to this first great African exodus?

In the final episode, Becoming Human explores the origins of us where modern humans and our capacities for art, invention, and survival came from, and what happened when we encountered the mysterious Neanderthals. Crucial new evidence comes from the recent decoding of the Neanderthal genome. Did modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals? Exterminate them? Becoming Human examines why we survived while our other ancestral cousins including Indonesia's 3 foot high Hobbit died out and poses the question: are we still evolving today?

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[monkeypeopleofearth]

it is embarrassing that 47% of Americans reject the concept of evolution. But these same people believe in talking snakes and talking donkeys because 2000 years ago, a group of primitive, desert-dwelling, bronze-age goat-herders were sitting in their tents, trying to figure out how the earth was created... and they got nothing right.

[Thinkdeep420]

SCIENCE RULES!!!!

[esenem3]

A library of ocean cores?! So awesome

[Dayoldsushy]

Humans are apes. Why are they trying to make a distinction between "us" and "apes"?

[sumittechkgp]

@ventura433 Trust me, you will always win :)

[AgApE010]

This was my second time watching this. I wish Nova would do more evolution documentaries.

One thing they didn't mention is exactly how brains got bigger. A couple interesting ideas are,

A. Eating meat provided the calories that larger, hungrier brains need. And,

B. By the time of Homo Erectus (the discoverer of fire) our ancestors began cooking their food, which made it easier to digest (less calories required by the digestive system) and thus provided more calories to be used by the body.

[aidan50203]

So we survived climate change before because we adapted to our environment. What about now that we adapt our environment to us?

[tamalmachakow]

@ajesusfreak1..... I just went back and read everything you wrote and said. Now look I'm trying to understand u but man , you contradict yourself everyother sentence.

[tamalmachakow]

@ajesusfreak1@.....here's one for u. I am a counselor for my native American people. I am studying psychology also. My question for u is hav u always been a Christian or did something drastic change your life like, did u do something or experience something real bad that pumped fear in u and then u turned Christian??

[tamalmachakow]

Here's a couple of questions someone can help with. How about people living to be hundreds of years old. Like Noah ? Is it possible?? Or why did apes stop evolving??

I'm just curious that's all??

[lordblazer]

@2eelShmeal

anyway we're all pretty closely related. And when it comes to adapting humans do it quite fast most of us adapt to a lot of different climates throughout our entire lives., and out genetic changes with us the entire duration of our lives.