The 10,000 year explosion: how civilization accelerated human evolution

Description

Resistance to malaria. Blue eyes. Lactose tolerance. What do all of these traits have in common? Every one of them has emerged in the last 10,000 years. Scientists have long believed that the "great leap forward" that occurred some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago in Europe marked end of significant biological evolution in humans. In this stunningly original account of our evolutionary history, top scholars Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending reject this conventional wisdom and reveal that the human species has undergone a storm of genetic change much more recently. Human evolution in fact accelera.  Read more... Abstract: Two leading researchers make the controversial argument that our species is still measurably evolving in important ways--in fact, faster than ever before.  Read more... Content: Overview: conventional wisdom -- The Neanderthal within -- Agriculture : the big change -- Consequences of agriculture -- Gene flow -- Expansions -- Medieval evolution : how the Ashkenazi Jews got their smarts.