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60th out of 89 books
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11 voters
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Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom
For over a century, opening the black box of embryonic development was the holy grail of biology. Evo Devo Evolutionary Developmental Biology is the new science that has finally cracked open the box. Within the pages of his rich and riveting book, Sean B. Carroll explains how we are discovering that complex life is ironically much simpler than anyone ever expected.
Paperback, 350 pages
Published
April 1st 2006
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published April 11th 2005)
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First of all, I should clarify that I'm no scientist. But I do have an egghead mentality, and I've read plenty on evolution. What I hadn't read was much about developmental biology, and for me, that's where the main benefit of the book came. Although sometimes I wished Carroll would have boiled some of his 30-page chapters down to two or three.
Those are my disclaimers. But I think I gained a lot of insight anyway.
The book's excitement comes in the form of summarizing the...more
Those are my disclaimers. But I think I gained a lot of insight anyway.
The book's excitement comes in the form of summarizing the...more
This is a SUPERB book! Building on Darwin's famous last sentence ("endless forms most beautiful") in the Origin of Species, Carroll gives a wonderful history and account of the science of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo Devo). The story encompasses two broad categories: embryology - how animals develop their forms from embryo to adult, and evolution - how species have developed over the eons through natural selection. Evo devo exploded in the last decade as geneticists have ...more
A great introduction and review of the work linking the developmental impact of reusing the master regulatory proteins to control a changing galaxy of specific proteins to alter the final organisms form to fit its habitat.
He details the emergence of the body axes under the Hox proteins and how they work to isolate the expression of genes to promote modularity. Isolation makes regional use of bone, collagen, epithelium etc independent of other modules that also use the same genes. This allow...more
He details the emergence of the body axes under the Hox proteins and how they work to isolate the expression of genes to promote modularity. Isolation makes regional use of bone, collagen, epithelium etc independent of other modules that also use the same genes. This allow...more
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I am a biology & chemistry major. My favorite biology professor taught a class essentially dedicated to the deeper and more scientific study of the concepts presented in this book - best class I've ever taken. But, not everyone has the background for, or time to take, a class like that. This book is a very good way for non-science majors to gain a good understanding of some essential and fundamental concepts about how life came to be what it is today (Though do not assume its any sort of "e...more
Let's face it: You don't know jack about genetics, DNA, or the way that life actually perpetuates in this crazy world. I certainly didn't. Then I read this book.
Sean Carroll is a popular writer on evolution and DNA and this book is an excellent place to begin to learn about how life develops and how the genetic history of organisms slowly unfolds. Carroll's viewpoint is from someone who sees DNA as a real explanation for a lot of the questions people have about evolution and the rela...more
Sean Carroll is a popular writer on evolution and DNA and this book is an excellent place to begin to learn about how life develops and how the genetic history of organisms slowly unfolds. Carroll's viewpoint is from someone who sees DNA as a real explanation for a lot of the questions people have about evolution and the rela...more
An excellent and clear introduction to the science of evo-devo.
Caroll lays out beautifully what he and colleagues are learning through combining embryology with evolution, and shows how the union solves a number of mysteries that have been puzzling scientists for decades.
Although this is very definitely a layman's introduction, it does get quite deep into the science, to the point that I found myself a bit confused by all the different concepts - switches, toolkits, etc.
...more
Caroll lays out beautifully what he and colleagues are learning through combining embryology with evolution, and shows how the union solves a number of mysteries that have been puzzling scientists for decades.
Although this is very definitely a layman's introduction, it does get quite deep into the science, to the point that I found myself a bit confused by all the different concepts - switches, toolkits, etc.
...more
What a great book on evolution! Its so captivating, enlightening, and flawless in its arguments that I'm just disgusted at how evolution was taught so dryly and uninterestingly in college... and with so much less insight! This book really introduced the discipline of evolutionary development (evo-devo) which integrates embryology with evolutionary science to give a more thorough and modern way to visualize and understand evolution. It focuses mainly on the Hox genes and other "tool kit"...more
This book illustrates the ways in which the new fields of Evo Devo and bioinformatics are revolutionizing biology. The art of interpreting fossils has given way to the new hard science of genome analysis. If you really want to know how evolution works and where complexity comes from, you need to read this book.
"Every animal form is the product of two processes--development from an egg and evolution from its ancestors," writes Sean B. Carroll in his introduction to Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The new science of "evo devo"--or evolutionary developmental biology--examines the relationships between those two processes, embryonic development and evolutionary changes, despite their radically different time scales. Carroll first offers a recap of how genes express themselves in a growin...more
Carroll is the leading light in Evo Devo, and this is quite simply the best book written yet on the topic. His revelation that all species have essentially the same DNA--just fewer chromosomes--and the notion that most genes are regulatory and determine which others are turned on is utterly fascinating (large flippered sea creatures have fingers inside the flippers, but may only have 3 due to the genes for the other two being turned off, for example; the genes are identical to the finger genes i...more
This is a very informative and fascinating book about evolutionary biology and genetics!
While I find the term "Evo Devo" quite silly, it is a deep and illuminating topic.
The author also uses a couple other tacky terms that bugged me:
He refers to the genomic contents not coding for proteins as "dark matter".
He refers to the Cambrian explosion as a "big bang", groan.
The book avoids heavy microbiological details on genetics, focusing...more
While I find the term "Evo Devo" quite silly, it is a deep and illuminating topic.
The author also uses a couple other tacky terms that bugged me:
He refers to the genomic contents not coding for proteins as "dark matter".
He refers to the Cambrian explosion as a "big bang", groan.
The book avoids heavy microbiological details on genetics, focusing...more
This was a really good and thorough review of an area of evolutionary theory that I knew nothing about. It probably was not a good choice for an audiobook; I think that I would have really benefited from some illustrations that I obviously missed. I think that I probably only understood and retained about 5% of this one but it's a really good 5%.
Here's what I recommend for anyone who doesn't want to wade through all of the details: read chapters 1-3 and then the final two chapters...more
Here's what I recommend for anyone who doesn't want to wade through all of the details: read chapters 1-3 and then the final two chapters...more
I was somewhat led astray by the wonderful title of this book, as well as its striking cover. While clear in presentation, the writing is somewhat technical lacks something of the poetry that I would have liked for anyone presenting the breathtaking grandeur of evolutionary theory. That said, the continuing discoveries of evolutionary biology are pretty striking. What is especially stimulating, given the relevance of this pattern to all sorts of other systems, is modularity: the idea that genes ...more
ถ่ายทอดความก้าวหน้าของทฤษฎีวิวัฒนาการหลังจากยุคที่ศึกษาจากซากสิ่งมีชีวิต มามุ่งศึกษายีนและการพัฒนาในระยะตัวอ่อน
- ค้นพบยีนควบคุมการสร้างอวัยวะต่างๆ ที่เป็นยีนเดียวกัน คุมการสร้างอวัยวะตั้งแต่แมลงวันจนถึงมนุษย์
- ค้นพบ "สวิตช์" บนยีน ซึ่งก็คือส่วนหนึ่งของยีน สามารถเปิดปิดการทำงานของยีนนั้น
สวิตช์มีหลายชนิด แต่ละชนิดทำให้ยีนทำงานออกมาต่างกัน
สวิตช์มีอยู่หลายตำแหน่ง
การจัดเรียงและสลับเปิดปิดสวิตช์ต่างชนิด ต่างตำแหน่งกัน จึงทำให้เกิดผลลัพธ์ของยีนนั้นไ...more
- ค้นพบยีนควบคุมการสร้างอวัยวะต่างๆ ที่เป็นยีนเดียวกัน คุมการสร้างอวัยวะตั้งแต่แมลงวันจนถึงมนุษย์
- ค้นพบ "สวิตช์" บนยีน ซึ่งก็คือส่วนหนึ่งของยีน สามารถเปิดปิดการทำงานของยีนนั้น
สวิตช์มีหลายชนิด แต่ละชนิดทำให้ยีนทำงานออกมาต่างกัน
สวิตช์มีอยู่หลายตำแหน่ง
การจัดเรียงและสลับเปิดปิดสวิตช์ต่างชนิด ต่างตำแหน่งกัน จึงทำให้เกิดผลลัพธ์ของยีนนั้นไ...more
I'm giving this book five stars because I really want people to read it. It was, for me, a really difficult book to read-- 300+ pages of hard science. It was also amazing, and revealing, and all in all a book I'm really glad I happened across.
Endless Forms Most Beautiful The New Science of Evo Devo is an introduction to Evo Devo-- or, more properly, to evolutionary developmental biology. It explains a lot about the (often surprisingly simple) ways in which life adapts itself to new...more
Endless Forms Most Beautiful The New Science of Evo Devo is an introduction to Evo Devo-- or, more properly, to evolutionary developmental biology. It explains a lot about the (often surprisingly simple) ways in which life adapts itself to new...more
Ok, this book attempts to address two different problems. The first problem is how an egg is turned into an adult animal. Everyone can appreciate that this is quite an amazing process, but ever thought of its details? As the original single cell stars splitting, how does each cell – all carrying the exact same copy of the DNA – know whether it’s a heart cell or brain cell or liver cell? How does the embryo – nothing more than a tiny collection of cells at this point – know where to put each orga...more
I agree with the author that this understanding of the developmental role in genetic expression and evolution is revolutionizing evolutionary theory and should have a big impact on all theories of human nature. One of my mentors. Israel Rosenfield (see my books by him )insisted I read this and it totally blew me away. it explained some thing sI couldn;t seem to fit into how evolution works.
One of the points of this is that the vast amount of evolutionary change doesn't necessarily ...more
One of the points of this is that the vast amount of evolutionary change doesn't necessarily ...more
This book opened up some great ground on recent developments in biological sciences, namely the evolutionary development aspects.
The text is ample with the results (and author's interpretations) of various recent studies and the effect of the whole is a feeling of a well rounded insight. It is definitely awareness raising pop-sci but not too watered down with background or trivia. Instead the author has a clear goal and adheres to getting the message across.
Which brings...more
The text is ample with the results (and author's interpretations) of various recent studies and the effect of the whole is a feeling of a well rounded insight. It is definitely awareness raising pop-sci but not too watered down with background or trivia. Instead the author has a clear goal and adheres to getting the message across.
Which brings...more
Here's why this book blew my mind. I remember almost everything I learned in high school biology (more than 20 years ago), and there were some things that no one could then explain. What, for instance, triggers some cells to become liver cells while others become skin cells? And, why, once a cell has become a liver cell, can it not produce skin cells? Why do all vertebrates follow roughly the same sequence of embryonic and fetal development?
Those things were a mystery in the 80s,...more
Those things were a mystery in the 80s,...more
I am not a geneticist by any stretch of the imagination. Having said that I was immersed in this book. I did lose it a little a one (maybe two or three) point(s) as the technical parts went over my head, so I skimmed a few pages. Then I got back into it. I do have an interest in how everything works and this book was fascinating. I'm very glad I heard about it and took the time to read it.
Jeff Van Campen
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in science and the advances made in biology in the last twenty years
Shelves:
science
This is one of the best popular science books I've read in a while. It is an explanation of Evo Devo and the contributions the discipline has made to genetics and our understanding of evolution.
Carroll takes the reader through key experiments, many of which he was involved in. This is an excellent way of getting across difficult concepts. It takes a bit of effort on the reader's part, but it's worth it.
The final chapter is absolutely amazing. It is the single best arg...more
Carroll takes the reader through key experiments, many of which he was involved in. This is an excellent way of getting across difficult concepts. It takes a bit of effort on the reader's part, but it's worth it.
The final chapter is absolutely amazing. It is the single best arg...more
This book was exactly what I wanted. It was a fascinating and descriptive introduction into the field of Evo Devo. I love how Carroll was able to relate childhood interest in animal forms to modern scientific inquiry. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in genetics or evolution.
This is a lovely, fascinating and very clearly explained extension to Darwinian evolution.
The new science of evolutionary developmental biology (or Evo Devo) is portrayed here in an accessible and intriguing manner by one of the founding scientists of the discipline.
Carroll is particularly good at explaining how genes are switched on and off at different sites in the body at different times in the development of the embryo. He shows how the same ‘tool kit’ genes are use...more
The new science of evolutionary developmental biology (or Evo Devo) is portrayed here in an accessible and intriguing manner by one of the founding scientists of the discipline.
Carroll is particularly good at explaining how genes are switched on and off at different sites in the body at different times in the development of the embryo. He shows how the same ‘tool kit’ genes are use...more
As an undergrad I became fascinated with evolution and was fortunate to have some brilliant minds to guide and mentor my interest. At the time the fossil record was still the bedrock of research; the molecular genetic tools were just coming of age and all of us anticipated or, perhaps, fantasized about the day the tree of evolution would be laid bare in life's genetic code. This book describes exactly that - the evolution of species through the molecular genetic record. It is gripping reading fo...more
The new science of evolutionary developmental biology finally exposed the molecular toolkits life uses to build species, whether fish or termites or us. Wildly important book, in spite of his acceptance of 1 quoted study I find incorrect.
This is the best kind of science book, one written by a leading scientist to make new ideas available to non-scientists. This was a dense book, and I had a hard time following it in places. But it was well worth the effort.
Been a long time since my undergraduate bio classes - makes me wish I would have continued to follow the developmental bio field. The writing was ok. Not as interesting and as captivating or engaging as I was hoping.
Awesome book! Although there is one chapter that would go above just about anyones head (except for perhaps the authors) this is an accessible and fascinating book and the must read on the topic of Evo devo
A great introduction to developmental genetics and evolutionary developmental biology. Quite heavy at times, but understandable even to the relatively uninitiated. Carroll makes some fairly minor unsupported claims regarding paleoanthropology, so I had to ding him one star, but I still highly recommend it as a first look into a growing and increasingly important field of research.
Wonderful popular account of the current breakthroughs in evolutionary biology. The title is perfect, lifted from the poetic last paragraph of The Origin of Species.
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