PBS.Human Spark (2009).3of3.HDTV.XviD.Ekolb

Human Spark (2009)

Part 3

A three-part public TV series about you. And me, and all of us. “We’ll be trying to get to the bottom of what makes us human. Trying to find that thing we’re calling the ‘human spark’.” One way to examine us is by looking at what’s almost us. “We’ll be checking in with our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, to find out how the tiny difference in our genes, just 1 percent, makes such a huge difference to who we are and what we can do. Chimps are smart as a whip, but they’re not us. Why aren’t they?”

The Human Spark debuts on PBS Wednesday, January 6th, with episodes two and three on the following Wednesdays, the 13th and 20th. “We can’t promise we’ll find the human spark, but we can promise that looking for it will be fascinating. And it may change the way you think about who you are.”

The: Brain Matters

In the futuristic setting of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of California, Los Angeles, Alan gets a highly detailed scan of his brain - which for a man in his early 70s, is in remarkably good shape. This image, projected on a huge curved screen behind him, is the starting point for a search within his brain - as well as the brains of others - for the essential components of the Human Spark; a search informed by what the previous two programs have revealed about the attributes that make humans unique.One of those faculties is language. Through both functional brain scans and high-tech EEGs, we probe for the language centers within Alan's brain,including those employed to recognize mistakes in grammar - and discover the way language allows us to manipulate symbols in our minds. He also untangles the complex story of a gene called FOXP2, visiting researchers in England and Germany as well as the US who are using FOXP2 as an exciting new window into how language may have evolved. Other functional scans of Alan's brain reveal a fascinating link between two of humans' most characteristic abilities - language and the use of tools.

Format : AVI

Length : 466 MiB for 56mn 9s 577ms

Codec : XviD

Source : HDTV

Language : English US

Subtitles : None

Genre : Nature/Science

Video #0 : MPEG-4 Visual at 1 012 Kbps

Aspect : 624 x 336 (1.857) at 23.976 fps

Audio #0 : MPEG Audio at 136 Kbps

Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz

Enjoy!

Ekolb