The Human Spark | Talk of Life
The Human Spark | Talk of Life
In this video segment from The Human Spark, Alan Alda goes to the Oxford University lab of Simon Fischer where the language gene FOXP2 was discovered, and to the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, where it is studied in mice. The FOXP2 gene is of special interest to scientists for several reasons – language may be what sets us apart from our earlier hominin ancestors, and has allowed us to communicate and organize as a society – but it is not certain yet if the gene is essential to “the human spark.”
