Today, we see how a genetic mutation gave birth to our civilization. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. T o fulfill our destiny as a species of builders and makers, we first had to leave hunting and gathering to take up farming. The scientist and historian Jacob Bronowski tells a remarkable tale of plant genetics that suggests this change came down to a key flash of human ingenuity.
Archaeological evidence makes it clear that two stages of genetic change set the stage.
Before 8000 BC, the ancestor of wheat more closely resembled a wild grass than the heavy grain-bearing plant we eat today. Then a mutation occurred in which this plant was crossed with another grass. The result was a fertile hybrid called emmer with edible seeds that blew in the wind and sowed themselves. The hunting-gathering tribes took to harvesting and eating these seeds. But they didn't have to worry about planting emmer, because it sowed itself.