Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
    The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
    The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution

    Written by Sean B. Carroll

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    DNA evidence not only solves crimes-in Sean Carroll's hands it will now end the Evolution Wars.

    DNA is the genetic material that defines us as individuals. Over the last two decades, it has emerged as a powerful tool for solving crimes and determining guilt and innocence. But, very recently, an important new aspect of DNA has been revealed-it contains a detailed record of evolution. That is, DNA is a living chronicle of how the marvelous creatures that inhabit our planet have adapted to its many environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rain forest.

    In 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. And what an eye-opening tour it is-one that features immortal genes, fossil genes, and genes that bear the scars of past battles with horrible diseases. This book clinches the case for evolution beyond any reasonable doubt.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 15, 2007
    ISBN9781400173150
    The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
    Author

    Sean B. Carroll

    Sean B. Carroll is an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His scientific discoveries have been featured in "Time, U.S. News & World Report" and "The New York Times", and Carroll himself has written articles for "Natural History" and "Playboy". His first book, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo", was a 2005 Top Popular Science Book of the Year ("USA Today"). He and his wife and children reside in Madison, Wisconsin.

    More audiobooks from Sean B. Carroll

    Related to The Making of the Fittest

    Related audiobooks

    Science & Mathematics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Self Is Other People

      Apr 3, 2018

      The Self Is Other People
      3 min read

    • Article

      5 The Basic Code

      Jan 29, 2019

      5 The Basic Code
      3 min read

    • Article

      It’s the End of the Gene As We Know It

      Jan 3, 2019

      We’ve all seen the stark headlines: “Being Rich and Successful Is in Your DNA” (Guardian, July 12); “A New Genetic Test Could Help Determine Children’s Success” (Newsweek, July 10); “Our Fortunetelling Genes” make us (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 16); a

      10 min read

    • Article

      What Both the Left and Right Get Wrong About Race

      Jun 1, 2017

      Race does not stand up scientifically, period. To begin with, if race categories were meant primarily to capture differences in genetics, they are doing an abysmal job. The genetic distance between some groups within Africa is as great as the genetic

      15 min read

    • Article

      Etched In DNA: Decoding The Secrets Of The Past

      Dec 30, 2019

      What does it mean to be human? Ancient DNA helps paleoanthropologists probe deeper into our ancestral past.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: Will We Care About Genes At All In 100 Years?

      Jul 18, 2018

      Genes are our modern idiom for itemizing life's variety and explaining human nature. We say there are genes for intelligence and shyness, genes for aggressiveness and maternal love. Researchers get billions from government agencies to carry out "geno

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Secret, Stressful Stories of Fossils: A new field called paleoepigenetics is probing how evolution responds to sudden stress.

      Dec 3, 2015

      Every year the paleontologist Alan Cooper meets up with a band of miners in the Yukon. As the miners go about their work, spraying massive jets of water at frozen mud and silt to excavate gold, they also expose animal remains from the Pleistocene, b

      8 min read

    • Article

      Fallout

      Nov 25, 2022

      Apocalypse, for example, actually means to uncover or reveal…. Reaching a conclusion carries the illusion of death. —Dr. Louise Reiss FALLOUT describes a physical process that begins in violence and often ends in death. It is also a rhetorical orient

      17 min read

    • Article

      Is the Dinosaur Family Tree Becoming a Dinosaur?

      Nov 2, 2017

      The division of dinosaurs into two groups, a taxonomy that dates back to the Victorian era, is looking increasingly shaky to some paleontologists in light of a wealth of new fossil discoveries.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Beauty Of Science

      Jan 29, 2023

      The Beauty Of Science
      9 min read

    • Article

      You’ve Swum With One, Stepped On One, Maybe Swallowed One. This Unsung Invertebrate Could Teach Us About Aging

      Aug 1, 2019

      WOODS HOLE, Mass. — In case you were wondering, Kristin Gribble is not a basher of fruit flies or roundworms. She wants to be clear: She bears no ill will toward those invertebrates so often studied that they’ve become scientific celebrities, recogni

      6 min read

    • Article

      The DNA Detective

      Apr 13, 2022

      The DNA Detective
      5 min read

    • Article

      Buffalo Gave Us Spicy Wings And The ‘Book Of Life.’ Here’s Why That’s Undermining Personalized Medicine

      Mar 11, 2019

      The human reference genome, largely completed in 2001, has achieved near-mythic status, but it falls short in ways that have become embarrassing and misleading.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Unnatural selection

      Feb 4, 2022

      Unnatural selection
      3 min read

    • Article

      Science Is Proving That Tragic Curses Are Real: Epigenetics and behaviorism suggest the ancient Greeks were right.

      Nov 19, 2015

      In the first lines of Sophocles’ Antigone, the title character bemoans her fate to the chorus: How many miseries our father caused!And is there one of them that does not fallOn us while yet we live? Antigone must reckon with the choices her father Oe

      6 min read

    • Article

      Straight To The Source

      Sep 17, 2018

      AS ANYONE WITH A FIRST cousin twice removed can attest, family trees are hard to decipher. But for a family that includes thousands of feathered species and more than a hundred million years of evolution, it’s proven near impossible. For centuries, s

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Making of the Fittest

    4.5/5

    19 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Any book with a subsection called "The Second Coming of the Trichromatic Monkeys" is bound to be good. And this book was no disappointment. After reading a number of evolution books over a long period it was exciting to read a completely new set of ideas and evidence based on actual gene sequences. The focus on opsins and color vision was a useful antidote to some of the "just so" stories you occasionally read in evolution books.

      I could have done without the chapter on why intelligent design is wrong, it seems like a waste of a good scientists time to bother to write about this topic.
    • 4/5
      This is a really interesting book, flawed only in the last few chapters.It starts off discussing what has already been learned, just a few years into the cross-species study of genomes, of how species vary and what changes have occurred in their history. This is obviously riveting material, most of which I'd never seen before, and it is explained pretty well. The fault in the book is the last few chapters, which form a sermon on evolution and the evils of denying it in modern society. All material I agree with, of course, but something we've all heard a hundred times.
    • 5/5
      Very nice book on 'evo-devo'. Carrol is not the best writer out there, but does a good job. But he does have the advantage that he is a researcher in this area, so you get everything first hand. Thought provoking book in that it shows how new forms can come about beyond the DNA only view (Dawkins). Dawkins often leaves out how the DNA actually makes a different being (phenotype) - the answers can be found in Carrol's books. Also shows that evolution is a 'tinkerer' and that there is no clear direction in evolution. 'Whatever works' is evolution's motto. Makes the 'no free lunch' arguments of the IDiots quite off the mark (evolution is not a search!).
    • 4/5
      It felt a little slow getting started but I really got into the second half of the book. I especially enjoyed the last few chapters which dealt with recent political issues and the future of evolution in our world. A completely infallible guide to the truth and power of evolution!
    • 5/5
      As exciting as Sean Carroll's first book, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, was, it was still fairly technical for lay audiences. This one corrects that problem by laying out the lessons of evolutionary development (Evo Devo) and our current understanding of comparative genomics in a way that is accessible (and exciting!) to any interested reader. This tale of history recorded in the both the immortal (surviving virtually intact in all animals for over 500 million years) and fossilized (abandoned) genes accomplishes his goal of providing irrefutable evidence of evolution's explanatory power and scope. Carroll goes a bit over the top in the final two chapters (where was his editor!?) and becomes a nag. His final chapter was obviously written at 3AM on one of those nights neither he or I can sleep, wondering what is going to become of the human race, and feeling particularly pessimistic about its chances of surviving long into the future. But skip the last two chapters, and this is a particularly good book at explaining what is going on in biology today.
    • 5/5
      Carroll starts out by talking about forensic use of DNA evidence in criminal cases, where we rely on DNA evidence to determine guilt or innocence, often in cases where the death penalty or long imprisonment is at stake. He explains, in simple terms, how this works and why it matters.

      And then he explains the contradiction between the wide popular acceptance of DNA evidence by the general public, and the widespread resistance to or rejection of evolution.

      Organized in three main sections, Carroll lays out, first, how DNA analysis works, why it is solid evidence of evolution, and how it enables us to decipher the evolutionary history of organisms; what it tells us about how evolution has worked, focusing on specific examples such as the evolution of vision in insects, primates, cetaceans, and fish, and why Antarctic ice fish have no hemoglobin in their blood; and finally, the major arguments against evolution and responses to them.

      The book is written in clear, understandable terms. Carroll acknowledges that some of the concepts are complex, but says they're both important and within the ability of the reader to understand, and then proceeds to explain them in an accessible way without talking down to his readers. In the audio version, we don't get the benefit of seeing the figures and illustrations while listening to the text, but in the audio CD edition, they are included on the final disk. In the final section, refuting objections to evolution, Carroll is respectful and never mocks those he disagrees with, but is absolutely firm and clear about why they are wrong.

      Patrick Lawlor, as the reader, is excellent, with a clear, expressive voice that captures, I think, exactly the tone that Sean Carroll intended.

      Highly recommended.

      I borrowed this book from a friend.
    • 4/5
      An interesting and accessible account of some of the DNA-based "evidence for evolution". It's fascinating to read of the way that common proteins have been conserved through millions of years of evolution, so that we still share them with our remotest cousins.It's kind of odd to me that it's presented so relentlessly as an argument for evolution. I mean, that's so settled, it's like beating the greasy spot where the dead horse once was. And then there's a concluding chapter on creationist pseudoscience and related religious lunacy. This is important in the US, I know. But to me it's like reading a book about the fine detail of star formation while the author argues vehemently and at length against geocentrism. Shouldn't that have been put to rest well before my lifetime? I wanted to read about the science, not the politics, and felt unsatisfied.
    • 2/5
      I bought it because I really liked his previous book, 'Endless forms most beautifuk'. However, I found this one a bit boring and adding little new to the many popular science books on evolution.
    • 3/5
      This book is a primer on how natural selection works. Carroll approaches this topic from a mathematical perspective through statistics and probability, but does so in layperson's terms (which means I can just barely understand it - hah!). The book uses examples such as Antarctic icefish for whom natural selection has chosen genes that give them enlarged hearts, blood without red blood cells, and a natural antifreeze. Mutation is a key idea, with Carroll stressing that mutations despite their bad PR can be beneficial and points out that in fact we are all mutants. While mutation is blind, natural selection is not. Natural selection acts cumulatively. Carroll also takes on the people who deny evolution by natural selection, refreshingly pointing out that it's not just religious conservatives with examples of Soviet geneticist Trofim Lysenko who persecuted proponents of Medelian genetics and chiropractic practitioners who denied germ theory. This is a good practical summary of the fascinating key ideas of biology.
    • 5/5
      Sean Carroll explains how evolution works on the DNA level by looking at various specific examples, such as the way the genes that code for light-sensitive pigments have evolved to give animals different kinds of color vision. And he does an excellent job of it, too. He gives enough detail to make things clear without ever overwhelming the reader, and the examples he uses don't just illustrate his points well, but are also fascinating in their own right. This book definitely did for me what science writing ideally should do: it both taught me things I didn't know about the topic and made me feel excited about it. When you look at evolution this way, it's amazing and beautiful how well it all fits together, and how much sense it all makes!The last two chapters, about evolution deniers and the impact of human activity on the environment, and thus the evolution, of other creatures feel a little tacked-on, and aren't really long enough to do full justice to either subject, but they do at least make some points worth making, so I can't fault Carroll for including them.
    • 5/5
      DNA evidence not only solves crimes—in Sean Carroll's hands it will now end the Evolution Wars.DNA is the genetic material that defines us as individuals. Over the last two decades, it has emerged as a powerful tool for solving crimes and determining guilt and innocence. But, very recently, an important new aspect of DNA has been revealed—it contains a detailed record of evolution. That is, DNA is a living chronicle of how the marvelous creatures that inhabit our planet have adapted to its many environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rain forest.In the pages of this highly readable narrative, Sean Carroll guides the general reader on a tour of the massive DNA record of three billion years of evolution to see how the fittest are made. And what a eye-opening tour it is—one featuring immortal genes, fossil genes, and genes that bear the scars of past battles with horrible diseases. This book clinches the case for evolution, beyond any reasonable doubt. 50 black-and-white illustrations and 8 pages of color
    • 4/5
      It's a very rare book review that causes me to immediately go and purchase a book. But that's exactly what I did when I stumbled across a glowing review while browsing SEED's science blogs. Clearly I was feeling a serious lack of science and critical thinking in my life that day.

      While I have some criticisms of this book, most of them stem from the fact that it was written for a general audience (and I'm glad that it was) and so sometimes had less detailed descriptions of physiology than I would have liked to see. But I'm getting ahead of myself! The Making of the Fittest examines DNA evidence as the ultimate forensic proof of evolution -- rightly pointing out that DNA evidence is routinely used and universally accepted in courts of law. Which raises the question -- how can someone accept, say, the use of DNA to prove paternity, and yet not accept the overwhelming evidence provided by DNA analysis as to the mechanisms and effectiveness of evolution?

      Carroll takes a comprehensive approach to proving his case -- from addressing common arguments of evolution-deniers (most notably that evolution "couldn't have had enough time" and the evolution of the human eye), showing examples both of useful genes deteriorating when selection pressure was removed and of how under similar selective pressures, many species independently evolved the same adaptations, to some interesting discussions of other historical resistances to other scientific ideas, and why this resistance happens over and over with major new ideas.

      I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in evolution.
    • 4/5
      Any book with a subsection called "The Second Coming of the Trichromatic Monkeys" is bound to be good. And this book was no disappointment. After reading a number of evolution books over a long period it was exciting to read a completely new set of ideas and evidence based on actual gene sequences. The focus on opsins and color vision was a useful antidote to some of the "just so" stories you occasionally read in evolution books. I could have done without the chapter on why intelligent design is wrong, it seems like a waste of a good scientists time to bother to write about this topic.
    • 5/5
      An extremely readable but nicely dense book of information on DNA, and how the genetic record demonstrates evolution in all its aspects: mutation, selection, population drift, and fitness for survival.