* A TIMES BEST SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR *

From the award-winning author of Adventures in the Anthropocene, the stunning story of how civilization allowed us to become the most successful species on Earth.

Humans are a planet-changing force. Gaia Vince argues that our unique ability - compared to other species - to determine the course of our own destiny is based on a special relationship between our genes, the environment, and culture, which stretches back in time. It is our collective culture, rather than individual intelligence, that makes humans unique.

Vince shows how four evolutionary drivers - Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time - further transform our species into a super-collective superorganism: a hyper-cooperative mass of humanity she calls Homo omnis.

Based on groundbreaking advances in population genetics, archaeology, paleontology, and neuroscience, Transcendence forces us to re-examine ourselves, showing us that we stand on the brink of something almost magnificent - and potentially catastrophic.

Pages: 320, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm