What makes us human?

The most important thing in our evolutional story is the size of the brain. Our nearest relative the chimpanzee has a much small one, but despite this limitation can nevertheless do innovative things. An interesting experiment carried out at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig demonstrated on Horizon: What Makes Us Human? Introduced by the charming Professor Alice Roberts, showed us all about it. One of the major characteristics between us our evolutionary neighbours, is that we are more likely to cooperate and be altruistic. I know that's difficult to believe when we consider all the current conflicts in the world. In one case they had two children aged about 3 years old, getting a number of marbles, they had to cooperate in order to receive them. However if one child obtained more than the other, there was a strong likelihood that they would share, and then make the number equal. This predisposition is why we as social animals are able to create and make such amazing discoveries, that making them in isolation, would be more difficult. So working together is the sine qua non for being human.