THE POWER OF HUMAN NICHE CONSTRUCTION

Niche construction is one of the most exciting theories to have emerged from evolutionary science in the last two decades, and is changing the way we think about adaptation. It is based on the simple but powerful idea that through modifying their environments, organisms transform natural selection pressures in ways that can have major evolutionary consequences. The importance of niche construction is nowhere more in evidence than in humans, where it has had profound effects on our genes, cultures and eco-systems. The unique and potent capacity for humans to modify and regulate their world in large part stems from cultural processes, thus making niche construction theory a point of integration between the biological and the social human sciences. RoyalSociety