你曾遭逢困境吗？曾在多变的生活中，不知如何选择吗？你怎么利用冰箱内的剩菜，烹煮出可口的晚餐？又怎么说出一句从未说过的话？皮亚杰认为，当你面临全新状况而不知所措时，你会用的便是智能。然而，人类内在的心智活动到底怎么由此刻状态变成下一刻状态？大脑究竟如何使我们拥有心智活动？并使我们拥有智能以面对未知？难道我们大脑里真有一个小人，命令我们做出种种反应？或者，大脑不过是一部具有特定程式的机器？ 　　自从达尔文提出演化论，我们便了解到，神奇的事物也可能由简单的开端逐步衍生而来。由於达尔文过程，新物种在数千年中被雕塑出来；免疫系统在数星期内产生新抗体；那么，在快速的思想与行动时间尺度上，达尔文过程是不是也能塑造出种种複杂念头？ 　　本片不仅以心理学、动物行为学、演化生物学、语言学等角度，来探索人类的内在心智活动，更深入人类大脑皮层，将达尔文理论应用在大脑思考的神经机制上，而架构出一部会思考的达尔文机器，带领读者思考大脑如何思考。

很多科学家曾经认为，当人类将自身与奇妙的自然隔离开来的时候，进化的历程也随之停止了。但随着人类基因图谱的绘制，科学家们得以详细地了解人类的整个进化史。他们发现了一个令人吃惊的事实：在近5万年内，人类不仅在继续进化，其速度还比历史上任何时期都要快。爱丽丝?罗伯茨博士将带我们探索人类在未来将如何进化，并提出一个疑问：如果我们能控制动植物的进化过程，那么我们可以掌控自身的进化之路吗？

跟着两个千变万化的生物一起踏上一场充满声光效果的奇幻之旅。Sonaria 的视觉语言简单而抽象，给人予启示；声音语言则层次分明，引人入胜，不断揭示出答案。 　　Follow two ever-changing creatures as they flow from one life-form to another on a vivid journey of sound and light. Sonaria's visual language is simple and abstract, designed to suggest, while the sonic language is layered and immersive, designed to answer.

如何才能战胜最凶猛的野兽；如何学会驾驭火；如何制造工具；如何躲避天灾人祸；并最终从一种猿猴似的生物、演变成了地球的主宰？想要揭开我们祖先的秘密，只有回顾发生在几百万年前所经历的生存之战，才能为我们解开谜底。 　　为了揭开人类进化的谜底，科学家来到了南非。非洲的独特之处就在于到处都是化石，人类进化史上的每一个重大事件都源自这块大陆。 　　在约翰内斯堡西面的格拉迪斯维尔洞穴内，科学家发现了数百具动物骨骼化石，其中有三具是人类家族中的早期成员。其中之一是我们的直系祖先，也就是大约20万年前、生活在非洲平原上的早期智人。 　　不过，早期智人并不是第一个具备人类特征的生物。在非洲，考古学家还发现过另外两种有着人类特征的动物遗骸——阿法南猿和直立人。然而毕竟，我们的祖先只有一个，只有一种生物能够存活、并演化成为现代人。 　　经科学家对三种生物的研究发现，促使人类发展突飞猛进，以至在短短的7万5千年里，我们从原始的穴居人变成了地球上最强大的物种的原因之一，可能是某种灾难的降临，迫使那些最有能力、最聪明、最有想象力的人类祖先学会了适应花茎，存活下来。灾难的降临原本意味着人类会灭绝，但实际上，却可能造就了现代人类。 　　就这样，一场原本可能让人类灭绝的灾难、或许恰恰造就了今天的我们。它促使人类的创造力全面爆发、加快了漫长的人类进化历程，也使得人类与其它动物有了本质的区别。

《生命的进化》这个系列首播于1979年，它开始了电视节目的一个新时代。David Attenborough和他的了不起的团队把一些相当不寻常的画面通过电视展示给世人看，它带领我们去关注世界上多样性的生物以及它们的演化。 　　这些对观众产生了持久的影响。这个系列是当时the Natural History Unit制作的最大的系列节目，使用的胶带超过100万英尺，拍摄的场景有100多个。

为什么长颈鹿的脖子这么长？为什么秃鹫的头上没有毛？为什么山魈的脸那么鲜艳？为什么狗有这么多品种？为什么丛林狼能适应城市的生活？为什么蛇没有脚？为什么小丑鱼会改变性别？为什么雄性海马生孩子？为什么毛毛虫有眼斑？为什么倭黑猩猩时刻性交？为什么鲨鱼能生存几百万年？为什么蜜蜂如此勤劳？……动物界有许多“为什么”等着我们回答，让我们跟随镜头，解开进化的奥秘。

Where did we come from? What makes us human? An explosion of recent discoveries sheds light on these questions, and NOVA's comprehensive, three-part special, "Becoming Human," examines what the latest scientific research reveals about our hominid relatives. 　　Part 1, "First Steps," examines the factors that caused us to split from the other great apes. The program explores the fossil of "Selam," also known as "Lucy's Child." Paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged spent five years carefully excavating the sandstone-embedded fossil. NOVA's cameras are there to capture the unveiling of the face, spine, and shoulder blades of this 3.3 million-year-old fossil child. And NOVA takes viewers "inside the skull" to show how our ancestors' brains had begun to change from those of the apes. 　　Why did leaps in human evolution take place? "First Steps" explores a provocative "big idea" that sharp swings of climate were a key factor.

In "Last Human Standing," the final program of the three-part series "Becoming Human," NOVA examines the fate of the Neanderthals, our European cousins who died out as modern humans spread from Africa into Europe during the Ice Age. Did modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals or exterminate them? The program explores crucial evidence from the recent decoding of the Neanderthal genome. 　　How did modern humans take over the world? New evidence suggests that they left Africa and colonized the rest of the globe far earlier, and for different reasons, than previously thought. As for Homo sapiens, we have planet Earth to ourselves today, but that's a very recent and unusual situation. For millions of years, many kinds of hominids co-existed. At one time Homo sapiens shared the planet with Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and the mysterious "Hobbits"–three-foot-high humans who thrived on the Indonesian island of Flores until as recently as 12,000 years ago. 　　"Last Human Standing" examines why "we" survived while those other ancestral cousins died out. And it explores the provocative question: In what ways are we still evolving today?

In "Birth of Humanity," the second part of the three-part series "Becoming Human," NOVA investigates the first skeleton that really looks like us–"Turkana Boy"–an astonishingly complete specimen of Homo erectus found by the famous Leakey team in Kenya. These early humans are thought to have developed key innovations that helped them thrive, including hunting large prey, the use of fire, and extensive social bonds. 　　The program examines an intriguing theory that long-distance running–our ability to jog–was crucial for the survival of these early hominids. Not only did running help them escape from vicious predators roaming the grasslands, but it also gave them a unique hunting strategy: chasing down prey animals such as deer and antelope to the point of exhaustion. "Birth of Humanity" also probes how, why, and when humans' uniquely long period of childhood and parenting began.