HMNS LECTURE ALERT: ‘Brain Evolution from Lucy to Einstein’ with Dr. Dean Falk on March 24

On Tuesday, March 24 Dr. Dean Falk of Florida State University will enlighten us on the latest understanding of the evolution of human intelligence — past, present and future — during a special evening lecture.

Falk is a paleoanthropologist whose interests include brain evolution and the emergence of language, music, analytical thinking and warfare in humans.

Imprints of brains stamped on the insides of ancestral skulls (called endocasts) provide clues about the evolution of intelligence. The same kinds of analyses used to examine the bumps and grooves on the brains of apes, early ancestors, and modern people have been used to study the cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein.

Although the size of Einstein’s brain was average, the form of his cortex was extraordinary. Einstein’s brain verifies that, in addition to increased brain size during human evolution, alterations in the brain’s wiring were crucial for the emergence of complex thinking.

This is reflected in the archeological record of material culture, which progressed from simple stone tools in early ancestors to the relatively recent invention of reading in Homo sapiens and the subsequent development of complex problem solving, like Einstein’s theory of relativity.

This lecture event is co-sponsored by The Leakey Foundation.

TICKETS: http://store.hmns.org/DateSelection.aspx?item=4684

BECOME A MEMBER OF HMNS: http://www.hmns.org/support-hmns/become-a-member/

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. DEAN FALK: http://deanfalk.com/

THE LEAKEY FOUNDATION: https://leakeyfoundation.org/