The 10000 year explosion how civilization accelerated human evolution is a 2009 book by anthropologists gregory cochran and henry harpending. the 10000 year explosion offers scientists and historians a new and fertile direction for future research and provides the general public with a better explanation of the past present and future of human beings i was motivated to read the entire book in a single marathon session john hawks author of human evolution. Human evolution in fact accelerated after civilization arose they contend and these ongoing changes have played a pivotal role in human history they argue that biology explains the expansion of the indo europeans the european conquest of the americas and european jews rise to intellectual prominence in each of these cases the key was recent genetic change adult milk tolerance in the . The 10000 year explosion how civilization accelerated human evolution by gregory cochran and henry harpending is the work of two professors one a physicist and the other an anthropologist its about the idea that human evolution has not only not ceased but it has even gotten faster recently