Just Finished Reading: Endless Forms Most Beautiful – The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom by Sean B Carroll (FP: 2005)

The last time I studied biology in general or genetics in particular in any depth was around 35 years ago. Since then I’ve read the odd book or two on the subject so whilst not exactly out of the loop on the subject I’m not as familiar as I once was (or arguably still should be) with the ins and outs of the workings of DNA. In consequence I honestly struggled with the first half of this book. It wasn’t that it was badly written or poorly explained – it certainly wasn’t that – it was just that some of my mental processors had rusted up in the intervening decades of relative inactivity. Despite the amount of effort it took to keep up with the intricacies of DNA in action and the assimilation of new discoveries about how exactly wings, legs, eyes and eye-spots come into existence and change form and function over time I did manage to keep up – though sometimes only just – with this fascinating story. Facts inevitably came thick and fast, experiments reeled off and detailed photographs explained to show how the same gene(s) that gave rise to the eyes of a fly gave rise to the very different eyes in mice and men. All in all there was quite a lot to absorb even after you got over the wow factor and, sometimes, the yuk factor.

I was far happier with the second section of the book – or should I say more at ease – where the author applied everything he brought up in the first section. Here he moved on from the ‘pure’ genetics of Evo Devo (Evolutionary Development Biology) to its application(s) out in the real world. Here he looked at the questions that had baffled previous generations of biologists and showed how the new approach could offer solutions – problems like the Zebra stripes, the development of the eye (not ‘re-invented’ on multiple occasions as previously thought), the development of flight in insects and birds and the development of the human brain plus much else besides. I can’t possibly précis the amount of information held in this book nor will I attempt to do so. I can only suggest that you sit down in a quiet room with a good strong cup of coffee and some of your favourite biscuits and have at it. It will probably be hard going unless you’re a lot closer to your College biology class than I am. But it’s definitely worth the effort to get to know what’s been going on in the world of evolutionary genetics in the last few years. The myths that Darwinian evolution is falling apart, has hit an impenetrable impasse or has simply run out of steam are blown apart. Real solid progress is outlined on practically every page. The implications are sometimes quite staggering. Not only are we moving into an era where we have a much greater knowledge of how Evolution actually works on a day-to-day basis we are not that far away from being able to manipulate this process at a cellular level. Once we know for certain exactly what needs to happen to produce a butterflies wings or a fish fin we are in a position where we can truly design living beings. Not only will we be able to design bacteria to produce any chemical in any quantity we wish we can bring back extinct creatures and create new ones that have only previously existed in the human imagination. The power of this technology is incredible. We are, it appears, not too far away from creating life from scratch. It’s all very exciting and more than a little disturbing!

I have more evolutionary biology books in the pipeline which will, I hope and expect, both deepen and widen my knowledge of this ever fascinating subject which informs both where we came from and, probably, where we are going. Along with Quantum Mechanics the subject has long had a hold on me which refuses to let go. Long may it continue.