Cochran, Gregory — Accelerated Evolution
Have humans changed in the last 10,000 years? Or are we biologically the same as the last 40-50,000 years. Some recently considered evidence suggests that so called civilization has promoted rapid evolutionary change in our species in the last 10,000 years. In this archive edition of Radio Curious we visit with Gregory Cochran, a physicist and anthropologist, who has co-authored the book “The 10,000 Year Explosion – How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.” His book asserts that changes in human biology, lactose tolerance and resistance to malaria for example, represent human evolution accelerated by civilization.
Over the course of two Radio Curious conversations with Gregory Cochran we discuss what some of these evolutions have been and why they occurred. We spoke with Gregory Cochran from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 23rd, 2009 and began by asking him what biological indications exist to show an increase in human evolution in the past 10,000 years.
The book Gregory Cochran recommends is “Twilight Of The Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions And The Re-Wilding Of America,” by Paul S. Martin.