Just as a jury can match DNA taken from a crime scene to a suspect’s DNA, scientists can compare strings of DNA to identify the origins of species and relationships among all organisms. Carroll, a professor of genetics and molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is a star in biology’s firmament. Before tackling Darwinism and its “survival of the fittest” credo, his earlier writings considered the role that genetic hierarchies play in determining why some organisms make it and others die off. This line of inquiry – the combined study of evolution and development – is known as “Evo-Devo,” and has been described as “the arrival of the fittest.”
There’s certainly a whole lot more DNA evidence now than in years past. The quest for the human genome and new science of genomics has explosively expanded DNA databases, which contain the raw code for the makings of all animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. Through comparative DNA studies, says Carroll, scientists can peer back through the mists of time 600 or 700 million years to confirm that the process of natural selection drives diversity. DNA is a window into our ancient past.
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