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Page last updated at 09:09 GMT, Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Human brain 'a useless mutation'

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One of the many mysteries about the human brain is why it took a great leap forward 200,000 years ago.

Scientists have long been puzzled about why, after about three million years of gradual development, human brains suddenly doubled in size (relative to body weight).

Last night, at the Royal Society Ferrier Award Lecture, Professor Colin Blakemore, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford and Warwick, tried to provide an answer.

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