Sean B. Carroll is a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the author of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo-Devo (W. W. Norton), which Discover chose as one of our top science books of 2005. In this interview he talks to senior editor Josie Glausiusz about his new book, The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (W. W. Norton, $25.95).
Why did you write The Making of the Fittest?
Because there has been a flood of wonderful and, I think, profound discoveries in just the last few years that were made by studying the DNA record of evolution. Very little of what is in the book has been shared with the reading public, and most of it is not in textbooks either, but will be.