Sex is the key to the immortality of genes, and any tactic necessary will be deployed in the cause of reproduction - even if it's suicidal to the participant. This episode explores many of the most ingenious, complex, and dramatic methods that animals employ to ensure the continuation of their genetic line.
The idea of intelligence is explored in the concepts of computers (using bits as their basic units of information), whales (in their songs and their disruptions by human activities), DNA, the human brain (the evolution of the brain stem, frontal lobes, neurons, cerebral hemispheres, and corpus callosum under the Triune Brain Model), and man-made structures for collective intelligence (cities, libraries, books, computers, and satellites). The episode ends with speculation on alien intelligence and the information conveyed on the Voyager Golden Record.
Some 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs were wiped out when their gene machines failed to cope with the cataclysmic changes that followed a comet's collision with Earth. But with extinction came new life, and surviving mammals evolved to seize the territory left vacant by the vanquished. The concluding episode explores the factors that make winners and losers in the game of life, and poses the question: Who will triumph in the long run?
From the detection of gravitational waves generated in space over a billion years ago, to discoveries in genetics here on Earth, we've collected the most compelling science breakthroughs and advances of 2016.
Thanks to magnificent, hard-working scientists and researchers around the world, science keeps marching ever forward. And this year saw some discoveries that are absolutely brimming with the promise of greater discoveries, breakthroughs and quality of life in the future.
2020 has been an unprecedented year in science. From a global pandemic and race to find a cure, to exploring our planetary neighbours and our own world, stay in the know with the latest stories that defined this tumultuous year. 365 days marked by stark warnings about the planet's future and technological triumphs. During this journey around the sun, science continued to reveal stories of our past and also provide promise that we can overcome the obstacles in way some far ahead and others more immediate.
