Zero to Birth

How the Human Brain Is Built

By: W.A. Harris

Narrated by: Michael Page

A revelatory tale of how the human brain develops, from conception to birth and beyond

By the time a baby is born, its brain is equipped with billions of intricately crafted neurons wired together through trillions of interconnections to form a compact and breathtakingly efficient supercomputer. Zero to Birth takes you on an extraordinary journey to the very edge of creation, from the moment of an egg's fertilization through each step of a human brain's development in the womb—and even a little beyond.

As pioneering experimental neurobiologist W. A. Harris guides you through the process of how the brain is built, he takes up the biggest questions that scientists have asked about the developing brain, describing many of the thrilling discoveries that were foundational to our current understanding. He weaves in a remarkable evolutionary story that begins billions of years ago in the Proterozoic eon, when multicellular animals first emerged from single-cell organisms, and reveals how the growth of a fetal brain over nine months reflects the brain's evolution through the ages. Our brains have much in common with those of other animals, and Harris offers an illuminating look at how comparative animal studies have been crucial to understanding what makes a human brain human.

©2022 Princeton University Press (P)2022 Tantor

A fantastic devo-evo journey of brain formation

This is an informative tale of how human brains were formed - from a single embryo to birth - from the perspective of both development and evolution ("devo-evo" as the author puts it).

The "devo" part focuses mainly on the human brain, and the "evo" part tells the story through the study and comparison of other species. It tells a story of nature and nurtures with the influence of CHANCE, a more realistic way to understand the brain.

Readers can expect some new terms/names/concepts, which will be well explained, many scientists' previous and current fascinating experiments and discoveries, and tons of captivating adventures of human and other animals.

The book covers the entire brain formation process in vivid detail and moves relatively fast because it has so much to cover. For me, it requires constant attention to follow. I want to listen to it again right away, both because it was fun, and I’m sure I’ve missed something somewhere.

The author is a Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge University and was the founding head of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience.