BBC - The Story Of Science S01E03: How Did We Get Here (2010)

Michael Mosley embarks on an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path. The Story Of Science: power, proof and passion; tells the story of the forces that came together to create scientific knowledge; the practical business of making instruments and machines; the great forces of history – revolutions, voyages of discovery and artistic movements – and the dogged determination of scientists and experimenters.

This is the story of how scientific ideas shaped the modern world and how science made history. For 3,000 years people have wrestled with the great questions of existence. What is out there, what is the world made of, where did we come from? For three thousand years, we have struggled to answer the great questions: the what, the where, the how and the why of mankind and our planet. In this fascinating series, award-winning journalist Michael Mosley explains how our knowledge of science has grown over time.
We learn about some of the great figures in the history of science - Galileo, Newton and Darwin - but also of the astronomer who lost his nose in a duel but helped create a new vision of the cosmos and the alchemist who tried to make gold from human urine, and set us on the course to modern chemistry.
An insightful and entertaining series, The Story of Science reveals how the political upheavals of history combine with iconic inventions and discoveries, along with the ideas of great thinkers, to create the advances that have transformed our lives.

Part 3: How Did We Get Here ?
The question of our human origins is one of the most controversial science has wrestled with. This is the story of how scientists came to explain the beauty and diversity of life on earth, and reveal how its evolution is connected to the long and violent history of our planet. Featuring ocean adventurers, eccentric French aristocrats, mountain climbers, a secret Victorian publisher with 12 fingers, a ridiculed German meteorologist, and only a brief hint of Charles Darwin.