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

Author: Sean B. Carroll Year: 2006 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Science, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780393061635 9780393330519 0393061639 0393330516

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. Similar books: The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins Life Ascending by Nick Lane Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins Acquiring Genomes by Lynn Margulis Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins Evolution by Carl Zimmer Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins The Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Stephen Jay Gould Evolution by James A. Shapiro Evolution by Brian Charlesworth The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin At the Water's Edge by Carl Zimmer Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets This Phenomenal Life by Misha Blaise Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer