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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The Story of the Human Body summary
Daniel Lieberman
Evolution, Health, and Disease
32 mins
Brief summary
The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman is a compelling scientific narrative that explains the course of human evolution, why our bodies are the way they are, and how our everyday habits harm our health.
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The Story of the Human Body
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Evolution works according to the logic of natural selection and adaptation.
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. Between its covers was a theory that shook the world. Centuries of religious ideas about the history of humanity were turned on their head.
So what does this famous book say?
Let’s start with the fundamentals.
According to Darwin, the driving force behind evolution is natural selection. This simply means that the best-adapted members of a particular species are “selected” by nature. Because of that, they survive and go on to reproduce.
Natural selection can be broken down into three separate – but interlinked – components.
First, there’s variability. By that Darwin meant that each individual organism is different from other members of the same species.
Next comes genetic heritability. Every organism passes genetic traits on to its offspring.
Then there’s differential reproductive success. That’s a mouthful, right? What it means is that different organisms will produce a different number of offspring that go on to reproduce in their turn.
Natural selection is usually driven by negative selection.
That’s when an organism has “negative” heritable traits. A good example in humans is the genetic disorder hemophilia. These traits lower chances of reproductive success.
An organism with negative traits is less likely to produce offspring than competitors which don’t have them. That’s because, like humans with hemophilia, these organisms would be less likely to survive – if it weren’t for modern medicine!
Negative selection, therefore, favors the status quo. It likes to leave things as they are. Organisms without significant new heritable traits come out on top.
That’s essentially a biological process. But what about the environment?
Well, when dramatic environmental changes occur, natural selection uses a different tool – adaption.
This describes how an individual develops new heritable traits that help it adapt to new surroundings. These help both the original organism and its offspring thrive.
A good example of a large-scale environmental change which triggers this kind of evolutionary adaptation is climate change.
And that’s Darwin’s theory of evolution in a nutshell! In the following blinks, we’ll dig a bit deeper and explore how the history of the human body fits into all this.
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What is The Story of the Human Body about?
The Story of the Human Body (2013) is a fascinating exploration of a story over a million years in the making: the evolution of the human body. Departing from the moment our ancestors first distinguished themselves from their hominid brethren, Daniel Lieberman traces the biological history of humans right down to our office-bound present.
Best quote from The Story of the Human Body
Height is a good measure of health. Before farming, humans were several centimeters taller than they were 300 years ago. Height only increased again after the eighteenth century.
—Daniel Lieberman
Who should read The Story of the Human Body?
- Anyone who’s ever wondered how we got from cave- to city-dwelling
- Fans of big-picture science
- Anyone interested in nutrition and fitness
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