Dr Brenna Hassett

Brenna is a biological anthropologist based at University College London who researches the hidden histories of human lives using clues from bones and teeth. While her 'proper' research as an academic tends to involve intense laboratory work with very very small structures in teeth, her archaeological experience has taken her to a variety of interesting places. She's been menaced by goats while walking very straight lines on an island in Greece that is four hours from anywhere, she's had interesting amoebic conditions relating to the quantity of camel urine present in the sand around burials she was digging next to the Pyramids at Giza, and been attacked by fire ants in a banana grove in Thailand. She writes on the subjects that fascinate anyone interested in human beings: why we are how we are, how we got here, and whether large parts of human evolution were even a good idea in the first place.