“Big Heads.
What is it that separates us from our animal cousins and makes us essentially human? For centuries, philosophers and archaeologists have asked this question, but at a fundamental level the answers have remained a mystery, until now. Evolutionary scientist Dr Armand Leroi explores how and why we became human, but instead of looking for clues in ancient fossils, he seeks out the oddities, aberrations and mutations around us in the present.”

for a scientist he does very little proper science, he starts off talking about a genetic disorder that results in a smaller head, smaller brain and the average intelligence of a 1 year old with a rat like looking face. he then moves onto talking about the old theory that a bigger brain = more intelligence, says why this idea failed and ended that segment with a comment basically saying that ‘it may be socially wrong but it might have ’some truth too it’
after that he moves onto the aspm gene which deals with the brain, claims this gene makes us different from the chimps and uses Shakespeare’s Othello as a example. he then says that a mutation of this gene 6,000 years ago resulted in civilization but then goes on to shoot down his own argument by stating 10% have the new gene, 40% have the old and the rest have both followed by a short few second blurb that there are no studies to link aspm to intelligence. he ends it by painting a picture of how wonderful it will be that mothers will want to screen for this gene.

the next one will be about how we conquered nature and natural selection no longer applies and how we are unique among animals.

From http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570777_26/Native_Americans_of_North_America.html

“Subarctic peoples crafted useful items from leather, wood, stone, and bone. Some peoples, such as the Chipewyan, also worked in copper. They used annealing techniques (alternate heating and hammering) to work copper nuggets from the soil into a desired shape. They fashioned a variety of copper tools, including knives, axes, scrapers, arrowheads, spearheads, awls, drills, and chisels. They also traded raw copper to other tribes for food, shells, and other goods.”