Unfit for Purpose - When Human Evolution Collides with the Modern World

'This book is a gripping and sobering reminder of how much we are all governed by our genetic inheritance. So much for free will.' The Mail on SundayStress, obesity, poor mental health, drug addiction, bowel diseases, violence and fake news; a stark checklist of modern world problems and every one of them is an echo of our evolutionary past.In Unfit for Purpose, biologist and broadcaster Adam Hart explores the mismatch between our fundamental biology and the modern world we have created. In each chapter Adam reveals the many ways in which biological adaptations that evolved to help us survive and thrive now work against us. For example, in the modern world stress is a killer but how did 'fight or flight' instincts turn from life-savers to life-takers? Obesity is a disease now but is it also just a side-effect of our evolutionary past? Whether it's the derailing of microbes in our gut, the rise of gluten and lactose intolerance, problems of social media or drug addiction, we always seem to have one foot in the modern world and the other firmly in our evolutionary past.Adam explores science, archaeology, medicine, genetics, sociology and more, to show how, in a modern world of our own making, we find ourselves 'unfit for purpose'. But all is not lost! In unpicking the causes of our current woes, he unearths some secrets of evolutionarily informed treatments that will change the way we think about ourselves and our future.

About the author

Adam Hart is an entomologist and Professor of Science Communication at the University of Gloucestershire. He is a regular broadcaster for Radio 4, including documentaries such as Inside the Killing Jar, Big Game Theory, Raising Allosaurus, and On the Trail of the American Honeybee. He has also presented Science in Action for the BBC World Service. On television, Adam has co-presented several documentary series, most notably BBC4’s Planet Ant: Life Inside the Colony, BBC2’s Life on Planet Ant and BBC2’s Hive Alive.

Adam is the author of more than one hundred scientific research papers. His previous popular science book was 2015’s The Life of Poo.

Summary

'This book is a gripping and sobering reminder of how much we are all governed by our genetic inheritance. So much for free will.' The Mail on Sunday

Stress, obesity, poor mental health, drug addiction, bowel diseases, violence and fake news; a stark checklist of modern world problems and every one of them is an echo of our evolutionary past.

In Unfit for Purpose, biologist and broadcaster Adam Hart explores the mismatch between our fundamental biology and the modern world we have created. In each chapter Adam reveals the many ways in which biological adaptations that evolved to help us survive and thrive now work against us. For example, in the modern world stress is a killer but how did 'fight or flight' instincts turn from life-savers to life-takers? Obesity is a disease now but is it also just a side-effect of our evolutionary past? Whether it's the derailing of microbes in our gut, the rise of gluten and lactose intolerance, problems of social media or drug addiction, we always seem to have one foot in the modern world and the other firmly in our evolutionary past.

Adam explores science, archaeology, medicine, genetics, sociology and more, to show how, in a modern world of our own making, we find ourselves 'unfit for purpose'. But all is not lost! In unpicking the causes of our current woes, he unearths some secrets of evolutionarily informed treatments that will change the way we think about ourselves and our future.

Foreword

Forged by natural selection and honed by evolution, humans are perfectly adapted machines . for a world that no longer exists.

Additional text

Excellent news! Thanks to Adam Hart, I can now blame my penchant for Prosecco on a genome that has failed to keep pace with the modern world! From the rise of obesity to the rise of fake news, Unfit for Purpose explores the relationship between our evolutionary heritage and the rise of modern living. Written with wit and clarity, this timely and thought-provoking book is one of the best I have read in ages.

Report

This book is a gripping and sobering reminder of how much we are all governed by our genetic inheritance. So much for free will. The Mail on Sunday, 5 stars

Product details

• Authors: Adam Hart, Hart Adam
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.12.2020, delayed
• EAN: 9781472971005
• ISBN: 978-1-4729-7100-5
• No. of pages: 352
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); popular science, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology, Human biology