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

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Key Phrases: bloodless fish, immortal genes, full color vision, Old World, Leanne Olds, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From 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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Sensing that many people misunderstand evolution or don't believe it, geneticist Carroll here hopes to teach the interested and convince the doubters. He uses popular interest in animals as his lure and selects specific creatures, beginning with bloodless fishes of the Antarctic seas, as stages for his substantive points about evolution. More particularly, Carroll focuses on specific genes carried by his cast of animals to demonstrate natural selection. Carroll considers the animals' most favorable adaptations, preserved in what he calls "immortal genes"; several hundred are common to all domains of life. Carroll then scales up to the macroscopic and considers traits such as color vision in monkeys; the vision and anatomy of fish, including the famous coelacanth; and the sickle-cell trait in humans. In each case, Carroll explains how the DNA code of the gene responsible for the trait is inferred to be the result of natural selection working on mutations, which occur at a steady rate. Here is evolution clearly explained and stoutly defended. REVWR
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393330516
• ISBN-13: 978-0393330519
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #132,319 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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130 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Primer of Evolutionary Theory for Beginners, October 13, 2006

By	Edward F. Strasser "Éad" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (Hardcover)

Richard Dawkins wrote a very enjoyable book titled The Ancestors Tale. It traces our evolution backwards, from humans, through apes and monkeys and so on, back to simple one-celled organisms. It tells the who of evolution: which species were descended from which. The Making of the Fittest tells the how and why: how variations appear in organisms and why they survive, or don't. This is the story of natural selection. Darwin told the story, but a lot more has been learned since then, especially in recent decades, and Sean B. Carroll has been one of the discoverers. But, unlike many researchers, he can write a readable book for beginners.

Carroll focuses on DNA because that's of prime importance. When DNA is copied, for the reproduction of the cell or the organism, the copy is not always exact. The new variant is usually harmful, but might be helpful. Carroll shows, using elementary arithmetic, why helpful variants occur and prosper much more often that most people would guess. Keep in mind that, when a bad gene does come along, the organism usually dies and the gene disappears from the pool. The good genes usually accumulate.

Carroll tells the story mostly through examples. For example, we humans are descended from animals that could see only 2 colors. Carroll tells of the duplication of the gene for one of the colors and the mutation of the second copy to react to a third color. (I simplify; Carroll tells more of the story.) Duplication and subsequent mutation of genes is very important in evolution. It allows organisms to develop new capabilities without losing the old.

Another important mechanism involves genes which control the expression of other genes. Even with no change in a given gene, a change that causes the gene to be expressed in a new place or at an additional stage in development can give rise to a new capability with no harm to the old. (Again I simplify.)

Gene duplication, changes in gene expression, and other mutations leave traces in our DNA and these give clues to our ancestry. This fact explains the book's subtitle. More important to Carroll, these traces also demonstrate natural selection at work. To give a personal example, an examination of my genome would show that the gene which shuts off lactose digestion in adults had been knocked out by mutation; as a result, I have a source of nutrition that is not available to most humans.

There's not much that one has to know to read this book. It probably helps to know that a gene is a segment of DNA and that the sequence of its bases determines the sequence of amino acids that makes up a protein. However, Carroll explains this. I haven't been a beginner for a few decades now, but I think Making of the Fittest will be accessible to a bright high-school.

As elementary as it is, it still has information that is of interest to me. The most important concerns the evolution or the eye. (He doesn't indicate the value of a cup-shaped eye: the animal can tell the direction from which the light comes by the part of the eye which isn't receiving it. And an eye that has only a small opening can form a rough image even without a lens.)

Carroll says a lot about disproving creationist arguments. This is probably futile. Most creationists are convinced that they have a Higher Truth revealed to them by God Himself. This book will, however, be useful for people who accept creationism simply because they don't know the science. And, of course, for beginners who are simply interested in the science.

For those who are interested in the material in this book and would like more information, there are a few books, ranging from elementary to advanced, which I recommend and which I have reviewed. Two are by Sean Carroll himself, on the topic of "evolutionary developmental biology; one (Endless Forms Most Beautiful) is excellent for those who have absorbed the material in Making of the Fittest and the other (From DNA to Diversity) is considerably more technical. Other books cover different related material. Click on "See all my reviews", above for the reviews. (There are 3 pages of them.) Or, to see only books related to evolution, click on my name and, on the profile page, click on the Listmania "Natural Processes That Promote Evolution".

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DNA Makes an Unbeatable Case, October 31, 2006

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (Hardcover)

There is a notorious book for creationists titled _Evolution: The Fossils Say No!_ It gets right to its point in its title which accomplishes two things. One is to claim that fossils do not say what overwhelmingly biologists and geologists say they say. The other is to emphasize that fossils are the chief evidence evolution can muster. That might have been true a hundred years ago, but now, even if we had no fossils to study, we would still have wonderfully abundant evidence of evolution happening and just how it happened. We can now look directly at the DNA in animals that have evolved from previous ancestors and see indubitable chains of linkage. Sean B. Carroll, a professor of genetics, relates the stories scientists are coaxing from the molecules of genes in _The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution_ (Norton). He points out in his preface that there is wide public acceptance and understanding of DNA testing in solving crimes; DNA can provide testimony about who was present at a crime scene with far more trustworthiness than fingerprints or eyewitness recollection. Yet polls consistently show that something like half of the public in the United States are more likely to go with the anti-Darwinian ideas in _Evolution: The Fossils Say No!_ than they are to subscribe to the theory of evolution. It is Carroll's aim to have readers consider the DNA evidence for evolution as strong as DNA evidence from crime scenes, and his clear and entertaining book does just that. "Every evolutionary change between species, from physical form to digestive metabolism," he writes, "is due to - and recorded in - DNA. So, too, is the 'paternity' of species. DNA contains, therefore, the ultimate forensic record of evolution." Carroll's book gives plenty of fascinating instances of evidence for that DNA record.

He starts with a fish that has no red blood cells. Before it was found, biologists taught that all vertebrates had red blood cells containing the hemoglobin that carries oxygen, and when there were stories of fish without blood in the Antarctic, they were assumed to be just stories. But in 1954, biologists were amazed to read a report of the icefish, so called because it looks transparent; it has no red blood cells to block the light. There is no fossil record for these fishes, but the DNA is there, although it could only tell the story of the icefish's evolution forty years after their blood was first sampled. The DNA that codes for red blood cells in fish and the rest of us is there, but only partially, and in an eroded form that cannot work. One of the lessons Carroll consistently draws is that in evolution, there is a "use it or lose it" dictum. Genes change, even if mutation rates are low; if the change is deleterious, it might be that the organism is sufficiently wounded that it gets no chance to pass the gene on. It also might be that other genes make up for the change, and if so, the changed gene gets passed to the next generation, but since it does not work, it can further decay as it is passed further down. In this fashion, natural selection maintains working genes, and ignores inoperative ones. The icefish DNA for hemoglobin is eroded, but it is still there from the time of its ancestors that had hemoglobin. (This is a perfect argument against some supernatural designer building the fish in this way: what would be the point of including eroded, nonfunctional DNA?) It does not do anything but get copied, perhaps imperfectly, for succeeding generations; the icefish has made other changes to do without hemoglobin, using a blood that is literally ice water, a large volume of it pumped by a large heart, to take advantage of the high solubility of the oxygen in icy waters. Carroll gives plenty of other fascinating examples of tracking evolution in this way.

Carroll gives an excellent but simple explanation of the mathematics of evolution, showing that while most mutations are, as the creationists remind us, harmful, that does not preclude a tiny fraction from being helpful, and the odds of this tiny fraction occurring in large populations over millions of years is quite formidable. In discussing why people may rely on irrational or non-scientific explanations, he turns to the example of Trofim Lysenko, whose unscientific and yet state-sponsored ideas of inheritance nullified for years any biological advancement within the Soviet Union. He also finds that the tactics of chiropractors in opposition to vaccination (such as exaggerating disagreements between scientists) are the same as creationists use in opposition to evolution. Science works, and it does not become iffy just because it turns its attention to a branch of nature that has implications against literal interpretation of scriptures. Carroll makes plain that such a religious expert as Pope John Paul II accepted evolution as science (although there has been some Catholic backlash in the past year); clearly there are some Christians who do not see evolution as a threat. In a final chapter, he makes clear that this is not just a matter of whether or not we teach evolution in the schools, for looking at problems like overfishing or the biological effects of global warming can only be understood in evolutionary terms, unimpeded by religious or governmental authority. It may be too much to ask that those who get their biology and history from religious authorities will read Carroll and understand how overwhelming (and beautiful) is the new evidence for evolution, but he has given an excellent summary for all to try.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not As Good As His Last Book, October 27, 2006

By	R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (Hardcover)

This is a solid but unexceptional popularization aimed at educating readers about how modern DNA sequencing - molecular methods have helped to explain the basis for adaptive changes and support evolutionary theory. Carroll produces a series of well written and illustrated chapters illustrating the fundamental genetic basis for adaptive changes. In doing so, he shows how this data vindicates and fleshes out basic features of evolutionary theory. This is done quite well but the book suffers from some significant defects. The last 3 chapters are largely tangential to the main thrust of the book. One is about the genesis of complex organs and developmental programs. This is ground that Carroll covered very well in his book Endless Forms Most Beautiful. This chapter is very good but doesn't add much to what he has written previously. Another later chapter is an analysis of the anti-evolution movement. This is solid essay but tangential to the topic of the book and the last chapter is a well written plea for more rational conservation and development measures to protect non-human species. I agree wholeheartedly with all Carroll writes on this subject but its not really an organic part of the book.
More important, Carroll has not addressed 2 important areas where some further discussion of molecular evidence would he very important. One is the use of sequencing data to generate phylogenetic trees and in general the whole crucial topic of molecular data as providing evidence for the unity of life is dealt with superficially. Most of Carroll's discussions are examples of within species evolution (microevolution); he doesn't address speciation (macroevolution). But many critics of evolution concede the existence of microevolution but dispute the reality of speciation. Carroll's omission of this topic is a major hole.