Holiday lectures highlight evolution

Noted UW–Madison molecular biologist Sean B. Carroll will deliver two popular lectures on evolution as part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute‘s (HHMI) annual Holiday Lectures on Science. Entitled “Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads,” the lectures will explore how developmental genes, natural selection and time fuel the evolutionary process. In addition to Carroll, David M. Kingsley of Stanford University School of Medicine will speak.

Carroll, an HHMI investigator, is known for his work to reveal the molecules that drive pattern formation and body plans in animals. He has also conducted landmark molecular studies of biological relationships between animals and other organisms in an effort to help resolve the tree of life. Carroll recently authored his first popular book, “Endless Forms Most Beautiful,” an exploration of the new science of “evo devo,” or evolutionary development.

The public lectures, which will be held at HHMI in Chevy Chase, Md., will be webcast live on Dec. 1 and 2 at 9 a.m. and noon Central Time. Beginning Dec. 6, the lectures will be available via the Web on demand, and in April of 2006 they will be made available on DVD for free from HHMI. The lectures will be seen and heard in an estimated 10,000 high school classrooms in the United States.