Must-Read Article by Sean Carroll

The latest Natural History Magazine (November 2005) looks like it has several articles well-worth reading. I don't have a print copy, and not all of the articles are available online, but I have to hightlight one that is. You really should read "The Origins of Form," by Sean Carroll. (I'm sorry, I don't know how to directly link to it.) The writing is interesting and the accompanying pictures are beautiful and elegant.

Advances in the new science of evolutionary developmental biology—dubbed “evo-devo” for short—have enabled biologists to see beyond the external beauty of organic forms into the mechanisms that shape their diversity. Much of what has been learned, about animal forms in particular, has been so stunning and unexpected that it has profoundly expanded and reshaped the picture of how evolution works. In the same stroke, evo-devo delivers some crushing blows against the outdated rhetoric of those who doubt that complex structures and organisms arise through natural selection.

I blogged about an article by Carroll, which is similar to this one, a few months ago. Expect to see his book on my sidebar sometime in the next few months.