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For its 2007 Darwin Day celebration, which honors
the achievements of pioneering evolutionary
theorist Charles Darwin, Duquesne University
is bringing the forensic study of genes to campus.
Dr. Sean B. Carroll, a professor of molecular
biology, genetics and medical genetics at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, will be the featured speaker
at the annual Darwin Day event on Friday, Feb.
9. He’ll discuss his book, The
Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic
Record of Evolution, which addresses how animals continue
to evolve by making accidental genetic mutations
a permanent part of a species’ DNA if a trait
helps ensure survival. These DNA changes
accumulate and can be used to reconstruct the evolutionary
history of different species.
“Dr. Carroll questions why there is so
much controversy when DNA is used as forensic evidence
in the study of evolution,” says Dr. Mary
Alleman, an associate professor of biology at Duquesne
who helped to coordinate Darwin Day. “In
criminal trials, DNA is viewed as strong evidence
that can exonerate or convict someone. But, people
question DNA evidence when it is used to prove
a lineage in the study of evolution.”
In the past, biologists have primarily relied
on the fossil record to study evolution. Carroll
instead has analyzed DNA to determine how new animal
species develop and evolve. In fact, he and others
have found evidence that most of the world’s
animals evolved from a common ancestor—a
primitive, worm-like animal—whose DNA had
the potential to grow appendages, such as legs,
arms, claws and fins. Some of the genes contained
in that ancestor are so important for development
that they are essentially immortal: the same ones
exist in flies, worms, and humans. Others
that have lost their function have become molecular “fossils” that
can be used just like traditional fossils to infer
how a species evolved.
Carroll’s past books include Endless
Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo
and the Making of the Animal Kingdom, which was selected
as one of the top science books of 2005 by Discover
magazine. He also is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
investigator at the University of Wisconsin. Carroll
has received the National Science Foundation Presidential
Young Investigator Award, the Shaw Scientist Award
of the Milwaukee Foundation and has delivered numerous
honorary lectureships. He is a fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and
was named one of America’s most promising
leaders under 40 by Time magazine in 1994.
Free and open to the public, Carroll’s
presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in the Pappert
Lecture Hall in the Bayer Learning Center. An open
discussion and reception will follow. For
more information on the event, call 412.396.6332.
Duquesne University
Duquesne is a private, coeducational university
with nearly 10,000 students. An extensive
selection of undergraduate and graduate degree
programs is offered across 10 schools of study.
Duquesne is consistently ranked among the nation's
top Catholic universities for its award-winning
faculty and 128-year tradition of academic excellence. | 
