Episode Information

Life has been evolving on Planet Earth for nearly three and a half billion years. In that time the process of natural selection has been like an arms race, shaping creatures able to survive in virtually every corner of the planet. Just 10,000 years ago, as the world emerged from the last Ice Age, one species evolved the intelligence to manipulate the natural world as never before. Homo sapiens – the wise man. Each programme begins by identifying a selection of human problems, explores how nature has solved them, and then reveals how modern science has adapted nature’s solution to our own ends. In some cases, nature’s solution is still far beyond our capabilities and we have had to invent an ingenious parallel solution. The stories are visually linked by the use of an elegant ‘Library of Life’ set. Specially built and looking like a super-modern museum store, the set is packed with specimens and skeletons and extended to infinity with CGI – to suggest the sheer scale of possibilities for inspiration from nature. Also available is Mircales of Nature, a presenter led version with Richard Hammond.