The Human Spark team spent the weekend in Arizona filming, by the light of a blazing campfire (and a literal truckload of lights, including our very own moon), a conversation Alan Alda had with archeologist Curtis Marean. Watch a video about the making of the scene…

Some parrots can talk — but can they really understand what they’re saying? In this podcast, researcher Irene Pepperberg describes her cognitive experiments with African grey parrots, and discusses why the line between human and animal intelligence is sometimes blurry. Listen now…

CERN’s massive particle collider in Geneva, Switzerland, may create tiny black holes when it goes back online — hopefully — in 2009. Not to worry, though: in this podcast, physicist Dave Wark explains that there’s no way these can destroy the world. Listen now…

The Human Spark crew visited neuroscientist Helen Neville in her Brain Development Lab at the University of Oregon. Check out some behind-the-scenes photos from the visit and the process of videotaping brain activity. View photo gallery…

Antarctica. On the surface, it’s the bleakest of lands, with ferocious winds, flightless birds, and enough ice to flood half the planet’s population if it were to melt. But below that frozen mass, a fantastic environment of indescribable beauty teems with life. Watch the full episode…