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Airs Wednesdays at
8 pm and Saturdays at 3 pm starting July 10 and 13.
Evolution is a seven-part
television series that travels around the world to examine evolutionary
science and the profound effect it has had on society and culture.
From the genius and torment of Charles Darwin to the vast changes
that spawned the tree of life, from the role of mass extinction
in the survival of species to the power of sex to drive evolutionary
change, Evolution is fascinating and far-reaching in scope. The
series also explores the emergence of consciousness, the success
of humans, and the perceived conflict between science and religion
in understanding human life.
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Show
1: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" (two-hour premiere)
For 21 years, Charles Darwin kept his theory of evolution
secret from all but a few friends. He confided to one: "It
is like confessing to a murder." Why does Darwin's "dangerous
idea" matter today more than ever, and how does it convey
the power of science to explain the past and predict the future
of life on Earth?
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Show
2: "Great Transformations" (one hour)
What underlies the incredible diversity of life on Earth?
How have complex life forms evolved? The journey from water
to land, the return of land mammals to the sea and the emergence
of humans all suggest that creatures past and present are
members of a single tree of life.
Show 3: "Extinction!"
(one hour)
Five mass extinctions have occurred over the life of the planet.
Are humans causing the next mass extinction? And what does
evolutionary theory predict for the world we will leave to
our descendants?
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Show
4: "The Evolutionary Arms Race" (one hour)
"The Evolutionary Arms Race" and "Survival
of the fittest" Raw competition or intense cooperation?
Both are essential. Interactions between species are among
the most powerful evolutionary forces on Earth, and understanding
them may be a key to our own survival.
Show 5: "Why Sex?"
(one hour)
In evolutionary terms, sex is more important than life itself
-- without progeny, we are evolutionary losers. Sex fuels
evolutionary change by adding variation to the gene pool and
eliminating unsatisfactory traits.
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Show
6: "The Mind's Big Bang" (one hour)
Anatomically, modern humans existed more than 100,000 years
ago, but with no art and with only crude technology and primitive
social interaction. Then, 50,000 years ago, something happened
-- a creative, technological, and social explosion -- and humans
came to dominate the planet. This was a pivotal point in our
development, the time when the human mind truly emerged.
Show 7: "What About God?"
(one hour)
Of all the species on Earth, we alone attempt to explain who
we are and how we came to be, and we use both science and religion
as our references. How has the tension between the two played
out? Today the theory of evolution still is dogged by controversy. |
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