AN102 / MET AN102:: Human Biology, Behavior and Evolution (Spring/Summer/Fall 2023)

Part 2 filmed at the Dept. of Neuroscience at Cambridge University, Professor Giles Yeo explains the role of genetics in making some people more vulnerable to hunger and obesity than others. Part 3 looks at new research from University College London that illustrates how the interaction of environmental change and genetic vulnerability is creating a growing cycle of obesity that some experts believe could make the current generation of children the first to die before their parents.

his event which is believed to have occurred around a wet market in Wuhan, China was unfortunately not efficiently contained and spread rapidly across China. Since its crossover events six months ago, the virus has infected over 4 million people and resulted in 300,000 deaths. Although progress is being made on both the drug and vaccine fronts, the main tool with which the human population has been seeking to contain the virus, social isolation, has been only partially effective and has resulted in major economic damage to the global economy. This presentation will focus on the biology, pathogenesis and epidemiology of the SARS-2 coronavirus and containment efforts to date.

These genes have helped shape modern humans into what we are today. So what kind of people were our ancient ancestors? This two-part series investigates what they looked like and what would have happened when we met them. It turns out that what we thought we knew about them is wrong. They weren't hunched, grunting, knuckle-dragging ape-men at all. In a reconstructed, imaginary confrontation, we discover they were faster, smarter, better looking - and much more like us than we ever thought. Our guide is Ella Al-Shamahi, a young British rising star in Neanderthal research, with an unusual side-line as a stand-up comic. She enlists the skills of Andy Serkis, the global movie star and master of performance capture, best known as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Caesar in Planet of the Apes, who uses his Hollywood magic to, for the first time ever, create a scientifically accurate 3D working avatar of a real Neanderthal.

hese genes have helped shape modern humans into what we are today. So what kind of people were our ancient ancestors? This two-part series investigates what they looked like and what would have happened when we met them. It turns out that what we thought we knew about them is wrong. They weren't hunched, grunting, knuckle-dragging ape-men at all. In a reconstructed, imaginary confrontation, we discover they were faster, smarter, better looking - and much more like us than we ever thought. Our guide is Ella Al-Shamahi, a young British rising star in Neanderthal research, with an unusual side-line as a stand-up comic. She enlists the skills of Andy Serkis, the global movie star and master of performance capture, best known as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Caesar in Planet of the Apes, who uses his Hollywood magic to, for the first time ever, create a scientifically accurate 3D working avatar of a real Neanderthal.

Gathering all the disparate, fragmentary evidence of three of our most significant prehistoric ancestors together, the team completely rebuilds their bodies, revealing how they moved, how they lived and most remarkably, how much like us they were.

Gathering all the disparate, fragmentary evidence of three of our most significant prehistoric ancestors together, the team completely rebuilds their bodies, revealing how they moved, how they lived and most remarkably, how much like us they were.