Customer Reviews

Great Minds of Science: Evolution [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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In this volume of the "Great Minds of Science" series, we are introduced to the ideas and eccentric personality of Dr. Jared Diamond (Professor of Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," and "The Third Chimpanzee," among other works).

The film opens with a brief introduction to Darwinism, a recapitulation of the evidence for human evolution, and then works its way towards the essence of the film: the interview. Framing the discussion, we are asked: "What does it really mean to be human? What's unique about our species? What turned us from a dim-witted ape-man to the glorious thinking animal we are today? How much of our behavior is programmed into our genes? If we and chimps are so genetically similar, is it wrong to use them in medical research? If what sets us apart from chimps is our greater ability to think, why do we do stupid things like destroy our environment and wage war?"

From there on out, we are joined by Paul Hoffman (editor-in-chief of Discover magazine) in the Los Angeles home of Dr. Diamond, where they discuss-among many other subjects-the evolution of human language, the nature of twins and multiple births, natural selection and over-design in nature, the power of sexual selection, sociobiology, human aggression, biodiversity and the environmental crisis, ethical questions in using animals in medical research, and Diamond's prodigious discovery of the long lost New Guinea bowerbird. All in all, great film. 4 1/2 stars.

I haven't seen the video either, and am not intending to now -- but Jared Diamond's book GUNS GERMS and STEEL was great, and won the Pulitzer Prize for general science --->> so I'll keep an open mind on the value of the video, and so should anyone else who hasn't seen it!

I haven't seen this video, but want to say that Jared Diamond is absolutely brilliant, amusing, and incredibly learned. He is an expert (i.e. at the top of the field) in two very different fields, an accomplishment rarely seen in the biological world.