Nova - The Odyssey of Life: The Ultimate Journey

From the maker of The Miracle of Life comes another astounding glimpse into the mysteries of life before birth. Once again, the microphotography of Lennart Nilsson takes you into the hidden world of life in the womb, from the dance of the egg and sperm to the emergence of our first tiny features to the thrill of birth.

But wait a minute- is that the hand of a human, or the foot of a chimpanzee' The leg of a pig or the wing of a chick' A close-up look at the developing human embryo reveals uncanny links to other species, telling of a shared ancestry that has its origins in the one-celled organisms of the primordial sea. See how remarkable similarities inside the womb- our own embryonic gills, for instance, or the vestiges of a tail- vanish as quickly as they appear, moving us beyond a common past to fulfill our own special blueprint.

What happens along the way to make us uniquely human' The secret lies somewhere on the ultimate journey from conception to birth- a journey that began at the dawn of creation.