The Runaway Brain: The Evolution of Human Uniqueness

This work brings together new research from paleontology, genetics and neurobiology to explain the runaway evolution of the human brain. It debunks the popular notion that people arose from a single Eve. It also considers "politically correct" revisionist theories of human prehistory. Christopher Wills delves deeply into the arguments that man's recent evolution has been driven by a "feedback loop" between the genes that control brain development and the culture that humans have invented. The book examines both the scientific and political ramifications of the two current competing models for recent human evolution - the "multiple origins" and the "Noah's Ark" models - and shows how genetic data close the gap between them. Christopher Wills is the author of "The Wisdom of the Genes" and "Exxons, Introns and Talking Genes".