He came to Boston in 1992 after teaching at Harvard for eight years. Professor Deacon's research focuses on the evolution of the brain and he is best known for his work on the evolution of the human language abilities. His new book The Symbolic Species summarizes this research. He is currently involved in neurobiological using cross–species transplantation of embryonic brain tissue both to study evolutionary and developmental brain differences and to develop new cell replacement therapies for brain damage.