Some scientists now believe we are living in a new epoch, the age of invention and human influence on the world, called the Anthropocene.
In 2014, science journalist and broadcast Gaia Vince took readers on a journey through this new world in her award-winning book, Adventures in the Anthropocene. Documenting the startling impacts of human’s growth on Earth, Gaia opened eyes to the future that we have all but set in stone.
Her new book, Transcendence (£20, Allen Lane), looks instead to our past, and how humans have evolved as much through our culture as through our genes. How did Homo sapiens out-live our hominin relatives, and what made us so different from the other primates?
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Listen to more episodes of theScience Focus Podcast:
- Richard Dawkins: Can we live in a world without religion?
- Does data discriminate against women? – Caroline Criado Perez
- Are Generation Z our only hope for the future? – John Higgs
- Is racism creeping into science? – Angela Saini
- What does a world with an ageing population look like? – Sarah Harper
- Is religion compatible with science? – John Lennox
