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Sonic the Hedgehog Is Why You Have Thumbs!

Season 2 Episode 26 | 6m 08s

The human hand, with its multi-talented thumb, might be man's greatest tool. But did you know we can trace that thumb, and the hand and arm it's connected to, all the way back to a 375 million-year-old fish named Tiktaalik? This week I sit down with paleontologist and geneticist Dr. Neil Shubin to learn what a fish, and a little blue hedgehog, can teach us about the evolution of thumbs

Aired: 04/06/14
Extras
AI’s environmental impact is more complex than it seems. Who pays the price, and how much?
What if you could turn the same material into a conductor, insulator, or magnet just by twisting it?
Why can hot water sometimes freeze faster than cold water?
How science unraveled one of the biggest myths in modern medicine...HIV's true origins.
I pushed my body in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us.
What exactly is the evolutionary purpose of love?
If everything around us is made of atoms, why can’t we actually see them?
This video explores the bizarre mathematics that show how infinity is far stranger than a number.
How Gerardus Mercator later created a map that transformed navigation forever.
DNA solves crimes, but what happens when it sends innocent people to prison?
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AI’s environmental impact is more complex than it seems. Who pays the price, and how much?
What if you could turn the same material into a conductor, insulator, or magnet just by twisting it?
Why can hot water sometimes freeze faster than cold water?
How science unraveled one of the biggest myths in modern medicine...HIV's true origins.
I pushed my body in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us.
What exactly is the evolutionary purpose of love?
If everything around us is made of atoms, why can’t we actually see them?
This video explores the bizarre mathematics that show how infinity is far stranger than a number.
How Gerardus Mercator later created a map that transformed navigation forever.
DNA solves crimes, but what happens when it sends innocent people to prison?