Human Spark » Alan Alda

Program Three: Brain Matters: Video: Full Episode

tanner vea — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:01:27 +0000

Peer into Alan Alda’s head to find out which parts of our brain are responsible for our most human characteristics. Where do tool use and language reside? And how do our brains allow us to understand symbolism, figure out what others are thinking, and even travel in time? Are insight and imagination what really make humans unique?

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Video Excerpt: Social Networks and the Spark

tanner vea — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:48:53 +0000

At Oxford University, Alan Alda finds out from Robin Dunbar how human social networks compare to those of chimps, and at Yale University, watches babies as young as three months old pick cooperative puppets over those that won’t play.

Video Excerpt: Kermit Loves a Bucket

tanner vea — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:04:51 +0000

Alan Alda meets Harvard University cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Spelke, who is testing the representational thinking skills of children by asking them to relate a map to the real world. Can the children put Kermit in his bucket, or does he end up sitting on the map?

Program Two: So Human, So Chimp: Video: Full Episode

tanner vea — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:49:32 +0000

Alan Alda joins researchers studying human children and chimpanzees to discover why we share some skills with our closest living relatives, but have far surpassed them in our most uniquely human capabilities. Though we both descend from a common ancestor and are genetically so similar, why are we worlds apart in our behaviors and abilities?

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Program One: Becoming Us: Video: Full Episode

tanner vea — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:56:52 +0000

Series host and narrator, Alan Alda, confronts the puzzle of why our ancestors in Africa got the Spark and evolved into us, while the first humans to leave Africa for Europe–the Neanderthals–never did. Why did we flourish, while they changed very little for thousands of generations before eventually dying out?

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Interactive: Highlights from the Human Spark

tanner vea — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:00:03 +0000

Alan Alda traveled the world, meeting with researchers who helped him narrow in on just what that elusive Human Spark is. What is it that makes us so different from our closest genetic relatives? What do we have that they don’t? Scroll through this interactive feature to learn a bit about some of the evidence Alan examined as well as some of the current debates in the field.

Web-Exclusive Video: A Conversation with Alan Alda and the Producers

tanner vea — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:10:17 +0000

Alan Alda, Series Producer Graham Chedd, and Executve Producer Jared Lipworth participated in a live webcast this week, hosted by the National Science Foundation. Watch them discuss the series with NSF Host, Maria Zacharias, answer caller questions and emails, and tell stories from the road – like when Alan got stuck in an MRI without his emergency button.

Web-Exclusive Video: Running = Big Brains?

tanner vea — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:00:20 +0000

Which came first – the running or the brain? Harvard University anthropologist Dan Lieberman explains to Alan Alda that it was early humans’ unique mode of running that allowed them to successfully hunt large game. And that reliable source of protein is what then allowed humans to evolve larger and more complex brains. Watch this exclusive web video to learn more.

Could you run a deer or a horse to exhaustion in this kind of endurance test? Dan Lieberman says you can.

Web-Exclusive Video: Social Mimicry and Positive Feelings

tanner vea — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:01:45 +0000

Obvious mimicry can be maddening – as the “Stop copying me!” refrain screamed by generations of siblings can attest. But in this Web-Exclusive Video, Alan Alda learns that subtle mimicry in social situations can actually lead to positive emotions and behaviors. Duke University psychologist Tanya Chartrand enlists Alan as a participant in her research.

Watch this clip to learn about social mimicry – and why you can’t expect an actor not to always have the best interests of the camera in mind!

Web-Exclusive Video: Chimp Emotions

tanner vea — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:07:59 +0000

Alan Alda and the Human Spark crew visited with Lisa Parr at Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center to learn more about her work on primate social cognition. You can read about Lisa’s impressions of the filming day in our blog.

Watch below to learn more about her studies on chimp emotions and what these studies can tell us about the human spark.