The fascinating evolutionary links between six seemingly unremarkable traits that make us the very remarkable creatures we are. Countless behaviors separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom, but all of them can be traced one way or another to six traits that are unique to the human race--our big toe, our opposable thumb, our oddly shaped pharynx, and our ability to laugh, kiss, and cry. At first glance these may not seem to be connected but they are. Each marks a fork in the evolutionary road where we went one way and the rest of the animal kingdom went another. Each opens small passageways on the peculiar geography of the human heart and mind. Walter weaves together fascinating insights from complexity theory, the latest brain scanning techniques, anthropology, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and robotics to explore how the smallest of changes over the past six million years - all shaped by the forces of evolution -- have enabled a primate once on the brink of extinction to evolve into a creature that would one day create all of the grand and exuberant edifices of human culture. As the story of each trait unfolds, Walter explains why our brains grew so large and complex, why we find one another sexually attractive, how toolmaking laid the mental groundwork for language, why we care about what others think, and how we became the creature that laughs and cries and falls in love. Thumbs, Toes and Tears is original, informative, and delightfully thought-provoking.

奇普·沃爾特（Chip Walter），科普作傢、記者、電視製片人，曾任CNN主管。現為卡耐基梅隆大學梅隆學院常駐作傢。經常在《科學美國人》（Scientific American）和《經濟學人》（Economist）上發錶文章。著有《僅存的猿》（Last ape standing）等著作。現居賓夕法尼亞州匹茲堡。

譯者簡介：

蔡承誌，科普圖書專職翻譯作傢。譯有《食物與廚藝》（三部）、《創作大事的不傳之秘》、《大腦比天空更遼闊》、《知識的365堂課》、《無限大的秘密》、《如何幫地球量體重》等。