National geographic prehistoric video games

#National geographic prehistoric video games how to

For Spore, developers realized that making creatures bilateral, or identical on either side, needed to be hard-wired. Symmetrical, streamlined, bilateral and laid out head to tail, most animal life on the planet is built on this fundamental design. Paleontologist Neil Shubin explains how an ancient worm laid the foundation for our basic body plan. Next, we look at one of our strangest and most remote ancestors on the evolutionary tree: a worm. 'All animals, including humans, have a very similar set of basic genes, and yet weвЂ™re so different.' Therefore, the finished body part may vary, from fins to wings to fingers, but underneath the exterior the genetic chassis is the same. 'With over 100, 000 genes, we think we have genes that a lowly fruit fly would know nothing about. These same genes donвЂ™t exist just in flies theyвЂ™re in animals and people, too. We learn that eight master genes are so essential during development that any problems in these building blocks can transform a creature into a catastrophe. Levine demonstrates with a mutant fruit fly that has legs where its antennae should be.

#National geographic prehistoric video games how to

In How to Build a Better Being, Wright consults with top scientists on the latest discoveries in DNA development and explores how creatures with antennas, wings and six legs share a common family tree with all of us.ДЄt UC BerkeleyвЂ™s Fly Lab, meet geneticist Michael Levine - a key figure in a new science called 'evo-devo' that studies embryonic development - who offers Wright creative new insight into how genes build bodies and how the process can go terribly awry. Replicating creature-making within electronic gaming required Wright to develop an understanding of how evolution invents, recycles and repurposes parts. Spore allows players to design bizarre creatures that mate, compete against predators, obtain better body parts and, if they survive, ultimately become spacefaring voyagers. 'What are the things that evolution has at its disposal to define a creature, to mix and match the parts, and eventually come up with a unique organism thatвЂ™s going to live its life and try to reproduce?' - Will Wright, gaming innovator, EAвЂ™s Maxis Studio Then see how evolutionary creature-making is translated into a brave new world of gaming.

From prehistoric fish with wrists to 8-ton elephants with trunks, get powerful new insight into the origin of species and how our prized parts came to be.

The show, which is also included in the limited run of the collectable 'Spore Galactic Edition, ' joins Wright and leading scientists in exploring the genetic information we share with all animals - even creatures we could never have envisioned. ET/PT, National Geographic Channel (NGC) presents the premiere of How to Build a Better Being, the companion documentary to the highly anticipated new video game Spore, which will be released nationally on Sunday, Sept. But how much real-world science is behind this groundbreaking new game? And what genetic connections do people share with a universe of strange organisms? (EA) and video game pioneer and 'The Sims' mastermind Will Wright, Spore(TM) enables players to design a virtual galaxy of new life, such as a one-eyed web-footed creature with a snout, and then control their speciesвЂ™ evolution. In the newest creation from Electronic Arts Inc.