Cellular mutations won’t work on this.
“The speed of the human brain’s expansion is one of the most remarkable phenomena in evolutionary history,” says an article entitled “A faustian bargain” in the current issue of the Economist. “It has tripled in volume in less than 4m years.”
The article reports on cell-biological research in Italy, Germany, and the United States suggesting that a genetic mutation connected with the devastating illness known as Huntington’s disease may be the cause of that rapid expansion:
Hmmm. That link doesn’t seem to work, even though it’s accurate. Try Googling “Faustian bargain Economist.” That gets me there.
Anyway, it seems that optimal brain development might be connected with pushing the genetic envelope, but that grossly debilitating consequences ensue if the push is even slightly too intense.
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