The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean Carroll, Jamie W. Carroll (Illustrator), Leanne M. Olds (Illustrator)

From Barnes & Noble

DNA, the genetic material that defines us all, is a microscopic history book waiting to be read. University of Wisconsin genetics professor Sean B. Carroll and many of his colleagues are confident that this vibrant chronicle can reveal the incremental unfolding of life on our planet over the past 3 billion years. His DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution leads readers on a worldwide tour of the genes that we have left behind. A compelling scientific narrative; a fascinating addition to the debates over evolution.

From the Publisher

DNA evidence not only solves crimes---in Sean Carroll's hands it will now end the Evolution Wars. In the pages of this highly accessible narrative, Sean Carroll guides the general listener on a tour of the massive DNA record of three billion years of evolution to see how the fittest are made.

The Washington Post - Steve Olson

Carroll is an adept and wide-ranging writer. His narrative hopscotches from the Antarctic Ocean to Yellowstone National Park to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia to the Costa Rican rain forest. Even when he tells a well-known story in evolutionary biology, such as the linking of sickle cell anemia to malaria, Carroll finds a new way to tell it. One chapter begins, "It is rumored that the most common last words humans utter are, 'Hey, hold my beer and watch this!' " Reading The Making of the Fittest is like spending a few hours with an extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic dinner companion.

Publishers Weekly

Picking up where scientists like Richard Dawkins have left off, Carroll, a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo-Devo), has written a fast-paced look at how DNA demonstrates the evolutionary process. Natural selection eliminates harmful changes and embraces beneficial ones, and each change leaves its signature on a species' DNA codes. For example, the Antarctic ice fish today has no red blood cells; yet a fossilized gene for hemoglobin remains in its DNA, showing that the fish has adapted over 55 million years by losing the red blood cells that thicken blood and make it harder to pump in extreme cold. The fish has developed other features that allow it to absorb and circulate blood without hemoglobin. . Carroll points out that by examining the DNA of these ice fish species, it's possible to map its origins as well as the history of the South Atlantic's geology. He also uses dolphins, colobus monkeys and microbes to demonstrate how deeply evolution is etched in DNA. While searches for the genetic basis for evolution are hardly new, Carroll offers some provocative and convincing evidence. 7 pages of color illus.; 50 b&w illus. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Leading geneticist Carroll (genetics, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo-Devo), an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, presents new discoveries gathered from DNA evidence that confirm Charles Darwin's theory of evolution "beyond any reasonable doubt." Over the last two decades, biologists have mined the DNA record for insights into how species have evolved on the planet. These biologists have proved that every evolutionary change in each individual species involves specific changes in the DNA record that enable species to adapt to diverse habitats and "evolve new lifestyles." Readers will gain insight into the evolutionary process and expand their knowledge of how the "fittest" species were made, from fish that live in subfreezing water to birds that communicate via ultraviolet colors. According to Carroll, these new discoveries demolish the major arguments against biological evolution as promulgated by antievolutionists. Students and teachers of biology will particularly benefit from his readable treatment of the evolutionary process. An essential addition to every school, public, and academic library. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/06.] Victoria Shelton, George Mason Univ. Libs., Manassas, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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Table of Contents