Zero to Birth: How the Human Brain Is Built

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.

An unforgettable  chronicle of one of nature’s greatest achievements, Zero to Birth  describes how the brain’s incredible feat of orchestrated growth ensures  that every brain is unique, and how breakthroughs at the frontiers of  science are helping us to decode many traits that only reveal themselves  later in life.