How did the brain evolve? It probably started in some sort of very disgusting worm that had just evolved an anus (and therefore no longer had to defecate out of its mouth) crawling around on a sea floor some 550 million years ago. With this in mind, Tom will walk us through the big events in the brain’s evolutionary past, especially the evolution of vertebrate brains from invertebrate ones, and conclude with our best guesses as to what makes the primate and especially the human brain special. He will also ask volunteers to do some daft acting.