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Synopsis :

'The Ascent of Man', a documentary television series written and presented by mathematician, biologist, science historian and author Dr Jacob Bronowski was produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films and first transmitted in 1973. Polish born Bronowski's  family settled in Britain where he was educated at Cambridge University. He became an honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge and travelled around the world to trace the development of human society through its understanding of science. In the series, Dr Bronowski discusses a wide range of topics relating to human invention from the flint tool to geometry, agriculture to genetics, and from alchemy to the theory of relativity. He shows how they  are all expressions of man's ability to understand and control nature. In this edition, Dr Bronowski says that man is a singular creature and has gifts that make him unique among the animals. He is the shaper of the environment around him. Dr Bronowski traces the creation of man, noting that it is almost certain now that man first evolved in Africa near the equator. The ancestors of man include the Australopithecus which evolved in eastern Africa around five million years ago. From the Australopithecus onwards, the family of man ate some meat. Other species like the homo erectus eventually led to the  presence of homo sapiens or human beings. Dr Bronowski speaks about the development of man's sense organs, reflexes and movements, what makes man different from animals, how early man  hunted animals and the influence of the environment around him on man. He contends that man has a jigsaw of faculties which makes him creative and the power of man lies in his forward looking imagination.