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30th out of 115 books
—
53 voters
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 17th 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 "evo devo" movement, 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 "evo devo" movement, 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 begun to unlo...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 allows con...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 allows con...more
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 "ev...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 relationships be...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 relationships be...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.
I also couldn't help feel...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.
I also couldn't help feel...more
This is only for geeks. You know who you are.
Publisher's Summary
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. Perhaps the most surprising finding of Evo Devo is the discovery...more
Publisher's Summary
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. Perhaps the most surprising finding of Evo Devo is the discovery...more
This is a fascinating book about developments in genetics and evolution in the past twenty years. Sean Carroll is a leading researcher in the field; his lucid writing style and lively approach make this book a "must-read" for anybody interested in the subject. Plenty of illustrations and drawings help to bring the subject to life.
There are several big mysteries in genetics; humans and primates share 99% of their genes, so why is their development so different? The answer lies in "genetic switche...more
There are several big mysteries in genetics; humans and primates share 99% of their genes, so why is their development so different? The answer lies in "genetic switche...more
4 likes · like · see review
Short take:
Poor technical writing obscures otherwise fascinating content.
Longer take:
First, a bit of background: I'm a computer scientist who studies evolutionary dynamics. I also have a solid background in developmental systems. Thus, when I heard about this book (which is touted across the Internet as THE pop science book on evo-devo), I ran immediately to the library to pick it up.
The book is ambitious, providing a useful and broad history of the scientific and intellectual revolutions tha...more
Poor technical writing obscures otherwise fascinating content.
Longer take:
First, a bit of background: I'm a computer scientist who studies evolutionary dynamics. I also have a solid background in developmental systems. Thus, when I heard about this book (which is touted across the Internet as THE pop science book on evo-devo), I ran immediately to the library to pick it up.
The book is ambitious, providing a useful and broad history of the scientific and intellectual revolutions tha...more
Evo Devo stands for Evolutionary Developmental Biology and is a field which looks at both the way a fertilized egg becomes a living creature and the way changes in that process drive evolution. In Endless Forms Most Beautiful, the author/scientist Sean Carrol describes exciting new developments in the field (as of 2005), starting with clear, illustrated explanations of some basic concepts necessary to understand the rest of the book. As someone who does at least know the basics, this made the bo...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" genes wh...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.
Boy, did I enjoy this book! It describes the field of evolutionary developmental biology very clearly for the general reader. The author, a researcher in this field, is a good writer and he gives fascinating explanations of how a single cell becomes a body of very diverse cells, even though all the cells have identical DNA (its largely the genetic switches). Also, in exploring the relations among creatures in the animal kingdom, he emphasizes the deep evolutionary and genetic unity, much deeper...more
"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 growing embryo, then peers...more
This book is a fine explanation of developmental evolution. It is easy to follow and even entertaining for anybody with an unbiased curiosity about nature. It's an attractive volume with some amazing color plates illustrating some of the experiments that have shown scientists how DNA works in insect larvae. There are also photos of fossils and drawings of various animals as they once appeared and as they exist now. A very important book for all biology teachers, college students, school board me...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 instead on how different body parts are made.
The most important c...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 instead on how different body parts are made.
The most important c...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. It has defini...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. It has defini...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
Sean Carroll does a good job of explaining the science of developmental genetics and its relationship with evolutionary history. The diagrams and pictures are clear and informative. It's a good introductory book to evo devo, regardless of your scientific background. That being said, I am not a huge fan of his writing style. I own the documentary "What Darwin Never Knew" where Sean Carroll is the primary scientist interviewed. He is a lot more entertaining on the screen than in this book. Still w...more
A very interesting read, with insight into the evolutionary process from the perspective of evolutionary development (Evo Devo, or embryonic development). It does get rather technical for the non-biologist at times, something that is necessary to gain a proper understanding, but results in a difficult, slow read. In retrospect, I've forgotten most of the specifics of this book, but the overall impression whilst reading was one of complete awe, and left me with a better understanding of the scien...more
Evolutionary Developmental Biology.
Such vast complexity with such “simple” genetic logic.
Amazingly illuminating.
A must read in the never-ending quest for evolutionary understanding.
“Evolutionary developmental biology (evolution of development or informally, evo-devo) is a field of biology that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to determine the ancestral relationship between them, and to discover how developmental processes evolved. It addresses the origin and evolution...more
Such vast complexity with such “simple” genetic logic.
Amazingly illuminating.
A must read in the never-ending quest for evolutionary understanding.
“Evolutionary developmental biology (evolution of development or informally, evo-devo) is a field of biology that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to determine the ancestral relationship between them, and to discover how developmental processes evolved. It addresses the origin and evolution...more
For want of an editor, this book, which should rate 4 or 5 stars ended up with only 3. Too bad, since the material is fascinating.
Endless Forms does a lot to merge the ideas of genetics, paleontology and developmental biology. Carroll explains extremely well how evolution happens "on the field" by exploiting a small, set number of tool-kit genes which are expressed or suppressed by epigenetic markers.
However, he gets a bit too detailed. Instead of focusing on 1 or 2 solid examples of these adapt...more
Endless Forms does a lot to merge the ideas of genetics, paleontology and developmental biology. Carroll explains extremely well how evolution happens "on the field" by exploiting a small, set number of tool-kit genes which are expressed or suppressed by epigenetic markers.
However, he gets a bit too detailed. Instead of focusing on 1 or 2 solid examples of these adapt...more
Feb 02, 2010
Pumsish
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
translated
ถ่ายทอดความก้าวหน้าของทฤษฎีวิวัฒนาการหลังจากยุคที่ศึกษาจากซากสิ่งมีชีวิต มามุ่งศึกษายีนและการพัฒนาในระยะตัวอ่อน
- ค้นพบยีนควบคุมการสร้างอวัยวะต่างๆ ที่เป็นยีนเดียวกัน คุมการสร้างอวัยวะตั้งแต่แมลงวันจนถึงมนุษย์
- ค้นพบ "สวิตช์" บนยีน ซึ่งก็คือส่วนหนึ่งของยีน สามารถเปิดปิดการทำงานของยีนนั้น
สวิตช์มีหลายชนิด แต่ละชนิดทำให้ยีนทำงานออกมาต่างกัน
สวิตช์มีอยู่หลายตำแหน่ง
การจัดเรียงและสลับเปิดปิดสวิตช์ต่างชนิด ต่างตำแหน่งกัน จึงทำให้เกิดผลลัพธ์ของยีนนั้นได้มากมายเหลือคณานับ
สิ่งมีชีวิตจึงหลากหลายได้ถึงเพียง...more
- ค้นพบยีนควบคุมการสร้างอวัยวะต่างๆ ที่เป็นยีนเดียวกัน คุมการสร้างอวัยวะตั้งแต่แมลงวันจนถึงมนุษย์
- ค้นพบ "สวิตช์" บนยีน ซึ่งก็คือส่วนหนึ่งของยีน สามารถเปิดปิดการทำงานของยีนนั้น
สวิตช์มีหลายชนิด แต่ละชนิดทำให้ยีนทำงานออกมาต่างกัน
สวิตช์มีอยู่หลายตำแหน่ง
การจัดเรียงและสลับเปิดปิดสวิตช์ต่างชนิด ต่างตำแหน่งกัน จึงทำให้เกิดผลลัพธ์ของยีนนั้นได้มากมายเหลือคณานับ
สิ่งมีชีวิตจึงหลากหลายได้ถึงเพียง...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 circumstance...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 circumstance...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
May 07, 2008
Tony duncan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
evolution, understanding science
Shelves:
science
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 come from smal...more
One of the points of this is that the vast amount of evolutionary change doesn't necessarily come from smal...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 up the single problem w...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 up the single problem w...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, and they were o...more
Those things were a mystery in the 80s, and they were o...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.
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Jan 15, 2012 08:21pm