But of all the questions I am commonly asked, the one I used to dread the most was “What will human beings look like in the future?” I hated this question! I am a professor of human evolutionary biology, which means I study the past, not what lies ahead. Like most professors, I also love to talk, and I enjoy people’s questions. In addition to working with students, I study fossils, I travel to interesting corners of the earth to see how people use their bodies, and I do experiments in the lab on how human and animal bodies work. My job and my interests allow me to be a jack-of-all trades. In fact, I am extremely lucky to be a professor at Harvard University, where I teach and study how and why the human body is the way it is. Like most people, I am fascinated by the human body, but unlike most folks, who sensibly relegate their interest in people’s bodies to evenings and weekends, I have made the human body the focus of my career. His research and discoveries have been highlighted widely in newspapers, magazines, books, news programs, and documentaries. Lieberman is especially well known for his research on the evolution of the human head and the evolution of running, including barefoot running (earning him the nickname the Barefoot Professor). He has written more than one hundred articles, many appearing in the journals Nature and Science. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences at Harvard.
Lieberman is professor of human evolutionary biology and the Edwin M. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.ĭaniel E. His research and discoveries have been highlighted in newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Discover, and National Geographic. He has written nearly 100 articles, many appearing in the journals Nature and Science, and his cover story on barefoot running in Nature was picked up by major media the world over. How is the present-day state of the human body related to the past? And what is the human body's future?Daniel Lieberman is the Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and a leader in the field. Never have we been so healthy and long-lived - but never, too, have we been so prone to a slew of problems that were, until recently, rare or unknown, from asthma, to diabetes, to - scariest of all - overpopulation.Story of the Human Body asks how our bodies got to be the way they are, and considers how that evolutionary history - both ancient and recent - can help us evaluate how we use our bodies. It's also normal to spend much of your time nursing, napping, making stone tools, and gossiping with a small band of people.Our 21st-century lifestyles, argues Dan Lieberman, are out of synch with our stone-age bodies. From an evolutionary perspective, if normal is defined as what most people have done for millions of years, then it's normal to walk and run 9 -15 kilometers a day to hunt and gather fresh food which is high in fibre, low in sugar, and barely processed. Story of the Human Body explores how the way we use our bodies is all wrong.