Today I watched two of the very best and worst science documentaries I've ever seen.
For the former, Origins Of Us, presented by Alice Roberts in a three-part series. It details the evolution of hominins, and the various developments that led to Homo Sapiens, both environmental and as a linear progression - and why it all happened. It's massively watchable, no matter where you're coming from - it's not dumbed down, yet it's perfectly accessible and communicates its points clearly. It's well paced, without a wasted moment, and I learned a lot from it. Can't recommend it strongly enough.
And as for the worst, Resurrection Science, which addresses the various attempts being made to bring back extinct animals (specifically, dinosaurs, mammoths and Neanderthals). It plods along at sophorific pace, never going into enough detail on the processes or focusing on exciting elements. It stretches 10 minutes of material into 30. It makes stupidly obvious statements which insult your intelligence. It occasionally veers off on pointless tangents, failing to connect them to the central story. It doesn't provide counterpoints or a dialogue among the researchers. It doesn't address any of the CONSIDERABLE ethical ramifications of these avenues of research. It is, basically, a complete waste of time. I turned it off before the last segment, for the dual reasoning of being fundamentally opposed to Neanderthal cloning, and realising I'd wasted half an hour of my life.
