The Human Miracle

The human heart pumps 8,000 liters of blood around the body every day. Human eyes can differentiate between more than seven million colors. Human skin has thousands of sensors that detect sensations and relay information to the brain. The human brain can store the same amount of information as 20,000 dictionaries. All these statistics show that the human body is quite rightly regarded as a miracle. And not all human capabilities can be expressed in numbers.

01 Little Conquerors – How Babies Discover the World

In the first three to four years of their lives, children accomplish incredible feats of learning. They set out to explore and conquer the world. They aim to make contact with their counterparts from the first moment. Children are naturally inquisitive, and learning is an almost automatic process – providing they grow up in a stimulating environment in which they feel safe. For a long time, scientists thought conscious communication only began with language. But prelinguistic contact with the world is the very first stage of all communication and learning.

02 The Ego… What is it?

Is human consciousness just a neurochemical process? If so, what does that mean for the idea of free will or the human subject or self? Does modern brain research show that it is not the self that decides what we think and want, but rather chemical and physical processes in the neurons? Some philosophers reject such theories. They point to the impact that consciousness can have on the nervous system, for example in the case of the placebo effect.

03 How Our Muscles Influence Our Lives

Until now, the 640 muscles in the human body were viewed as components of a highly complex system, but also as passive command receptors. But new research shows that the fibers play a much more important role. Muscles emit a large number of transmitters, most of which have not yet been properly analyzed, and communicate with other organs.

04 The Truth? It’s All Lies!

Is the world we see reality or just a product of our brain? Is everything we experience simply an illusion? Or is there an ‘absolute’ reality? In a series of tests, scientists show very clearly just how easy is it to influence our perception and thereby our individual reality.

05 What Makes Some of Us Strong?

Why does one person emerge stronger from a crisis, and another crack under the strain? Why do some people know how to turn failure to their advantage, while others don’t? The capacity to cope successfully with stressful situations such as failure, misfortune and emergencies is what researchers call resilience. But where does such strength come from? Is it something we are born with, or can we acquire it through learning?

06 The Secret of Healing Powers

A baby is born and survives that doctors think don’t stand a chance. A paralyzed cellist returns to the concert stage, even though that is said to be out of the question after four brain operations. Both recoveries were only possible because doctors were prepared, alongside modern medicine, to put their faith in the power of self - healing.