Christer Jansson

Biochemist and novelist

Christer Jansson is a biochemist and the author of Genes of the Past, a documentary-style science thriller that treats a fictional 550,000-year-old Moroccan fossil as the physical evidence of a sensory ability lost to the ancestors of modern humans. Jansson had a career as a lead scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before turning to fiction. His debut was published by Starry-Eyed Press in 2023.

Books

Genes of the Past

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Science & Tech

A Biochemist's Novel Imagines the Sense Humans Lost When Speech Began

Biochemist Christer Jansson's Genes of the Past uses a fictional 550,000-year-old Moroccan fossil to propose a sense ancient hominins lost when spoken words began replacing mental images.

13 April 2026·6 min read