The Human Evolution Blog

Why our flaws alone can’t disprove God’s purpose.

We've all heard that some germs are essential for health, but do we actually know why? And though microbes help build immunity, what about other aspects of health like allergies and emotional and physical development? Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D., a professor of Biology at John Jay College, weighs in on why exactly outside play is good for your child, from a holistic and data-driven perspective.

New research on attraction reveals how this multidimensional phenomenon integrates in our mind.

Stan Lee was definitely on to something when he posited that mutations were the way to deliver new abilities to an otherwise run-of-the-mill human being.

Psychological profiles of Donald Trump are hampered by lack of personal access, but can we learn something from an evolutionary analysis?

The godfather of “intelligent design” exaggerates even his “pro-Darwinism” example.

San Francisco Public Library is pleased to bring biology professor and forensic scientist Dr. Nathan Lents to the Main Library for a talk titled “Human Errors: A Conversation About Evolution’s Mistakes”. For such “highly evolved creatures,” humans harbor a surprising number of glitches, quirks, and outright flaws. We have retinas that face backward, the stump of a tail, muscles that attach to nothing, and nerves that take bizarre paths. We must find vitamins and nutrients in our diets that other animals simply make for themselves. Millions of us can't reproduce successfully without help from modern science. As biologist Nathan H. Lents explain in his new book, Human Errors, our evolutionary history is a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. Join us as idea innovator and host of the “Curious Minds” podcast Gayle Allen leads a discussion of our many shortcomings. Rather than a source of sorrow and despair, our many quirks serve as windows into the topsy-turvy history of our evolution past.

“Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes” by Nathan Lents was published in May. Lents will be giving a free lecture about the book Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the San Diego Central Library.

Come and meet Dr. Nathan H. Lents as he discusses Human Errors, his new book that explores the human body, which, wondrous though it is, harbors a large number of head-scratching quirks. But more interesting than the flaws themselves is their backstories. Human Errors introduces a new way to appreciate our evolutionary past: by exploring our many flaws. Some of these glitches are the results of anatomical trade-offs and evolutionary compromises. Others reveal that we shaped for a world we no long inhabit.