This website is no longer actively maintained
Some material and features may be unavailable
Home
Blog
Episodes
Becoming Us
So Human, So Chimp
Brain Matters
Video
In the News
Educators
About
Buy the DVD
Share Your Spark!
see submitted sparks
submissions are closed
Video
November 10th, 2009
In the News: 2009 Kistler Prize to Dr. Svante Pääbo
Dr. Svante Pääbo, an evolutionary biologist featured in
The Human Spark
, was recently awarded the 2009 Kistler Prize. Watch video of Dr. Pääbo with Alan Alda.
September 16th, 2009
Web-Exclusive Video: Chimp Emotions
Check out this video to learn more about Lisa Parr's studies on chimp emotions and what these studies can tell us about the human spark.
August 20th, 2009
In the News: Video – Pyroengineering
Pyroengineering. A big word for what early modern humans learned to do with silcrete at least 72,000 years ago, according to researchers.
August 7th, 2009
Spark Blog: Behind the Scenes and Inside the Skulls
We took a look inside Alan's brain using an MRI machine. Apparently he has quite a plump hippocampus.
June 10th, 2009
Spark Blog: Video: Filming on a Freezing Footbridge
Producer Graham Chedd thought a chat
en plein air
would add some visual variation from the two-guys-sitting-on-a-couch-type shot that's always easy to get in a professor’s office.
May 22nd, 2009
Spark Blog: Video: Humaniqueness
Harvard's Marc Hauser has coined his own term for what we’ve been calling the Human Spark – humaniqueness.
May 20th, 2009
Spark Blog: Video: Ancient Dental Cleaning
Amanda Henry showed us how she very gently scrapes dental plaque from the Skhul 5 skull’s molars to find out what our ancestors may have eaten.
April 9th, 2009
Spark Blog: Video – Dr. Steven Pinker: Language Makes Us Human
Language is central to Steven Pinker's conception of what makes us human.
January 16th, 2009
Spark Blog: Video: North Carolina Through the Looking Glass
Larry Engel discusses the challenges and joys of filming Alan with the chimps at the North Carolina Zoo.
December 10th, 2008
Spark Blog: Video: Scientist Tanya Chartrand on Filming with Alan Alda
Watch Tanya Chartrand describe what it was like for her as a scientist to be involved in a television shoot for "The Human Spark."
Page 4 of 5
«
1
2
3
4
5
»
WHAT IS THE HUMAN SPARK?
What is the nature of human uniqueness?
In a three-part series originally brodcast on PBS in January 2010, Alan Alda takes this question personally, visiting with dozens of scientists on three continents -- even undergoing an examination of his own brain.
» Learn More
TOPICS
Neuroscience
Primates
Human Evolution
Child Development
Behind the Scenes
FEATURED
Program Two: So Human, So Chimp: Video: Full Episode
Program One: Becoming Us: Video: Full Episode
Interactive: Highlights from the Human Spark
Web-Exclusive Video: Human Spark = Spite?
Web-Exclusive Video: The Human Spark and Man’s Best Friend
SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK
Produced by THIRTEEN ©2021 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.