The human brain is the most complex structure in the known universe.

So understanding the human brain requires that we explore the evolutionary route by which brains emerged, from the origin of life to today's complex societies. And, because the child is parent to the adult, we need to understand how brains develop from a single fertilised egg to the hundred billion nerve cells and hundred trillion connections between them that each human possesses. Against this background Rose asks the challenging question: what does the future hold for the human brain?