Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,04 Dec 1991,30 mins

SeriesSteve Jones - The Language of the Genes

The Economics of Eden

The Reith Lectures

Available for over a year

Dr Steve Jones, Reader in Genetics at University College, London gives a series of lectures on the new biological insight into humanity. In his fourth lecture, Dr Jones examines the correlation between genetic change and economic development. While society tends not to be driven by its genes, social and economic changes produce many of the genetic patterns seen in the world today. He also draws parallels between the evolution of languages and the evolution of genes. Languages evolve, he argues, like genes, producing dialects and whole new languages and lines of descent can be produced using languages as well as genetics.

Programme Website
More episodes