Lessons from our ancient ancestors
6/23/202638 min
Coming up, we explore the life and times of our ancient ancestors, and what they can teach us. In this episode, Lee Berger tells us about the Homo Naledi species that ritualistically buried their dead; George Nash on remarkable cave paintings in South Wales; Andrea Manica explains how our ancient ancestors evolved sickle cell to sidestep malaria; and Rod Flower on our forebears making medicine and mind-altering drugs. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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First 90 secondsChris Smith· Host0:02
All engine running.
Lee Berger· Guest0:03
Absolute genius.
Chris Smith· Host0:04
Get this. Welcome. Welcome. [laughs] This is the show where we bring you science- What that essentially means is- Discovery- Advances ... questions- Research- Technology- Unbelievable. Without further ado- This is The Naked Scientists. Hello, welcome to The Naked Scientists podcast, the show that brings you the biggest breakthroughs and talks to the major movers and shakers in the worlds of science, technology, and medicine. I'm Chris Smith, and today, how our ancient ancestors, going back up to hundreds of thousands of years, made the leaps that they did from ritualistically burying their dead to art, avoiding disease, and even discovering drugs and medicines. [upbeat music] Anatomically modern humans like us have been around for about 300,000 years. That's roughly when we split from an ancestor we shared with Neanderthals. In the time since, we've mastered materials, medicine, machinery, and even Moon travel. But one thing really stands out about our species. We revere our dead. And we have evidence going back at least 100,000 years that we afford the departed special treatment. Historically, people argued that our big brains and social instincts, factors that make us so successful as a species, are behind this inclination. But then along came a remarkable discovery from South Africa a decade ago. A deep