Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads

Lecture 1 – Endless Forms Most Beautiful

by Sean B. Carroll, PhD
  1.  1.  Start of Lecture 1
  2.  2.  Welcome by HHMI President Dr. Thomas Cech
  3.  3.  Introductory interview with Dr. Sean Carroll
  4.  4.  The young Charles Darwin
  5.  5.  Darwin's early career choices
  6.  6.  Darwin offered job on exploration ship HMS Beagle
  7.  7.  Geology spurred Darwin's evolution thinking
  8.  8.  Darwin's model of coral reef formation
  9.  9.  Unusual plants and animals intrigued Darwin
  10. 10.  Video: Galapagos animals challenged Darwin's thinking
  11. 11.  Darwin begins to form his theory of life evolving
  12. 12.  Dangerous ideas and secret notebooks
  13. 13.  Pigeon breeding and the Galapagos finches
  14. 14.  "Life as a Tree" and natural selection
  15. 15.  Darwin "forced" to go public with his theory
  16. 16.  Darwin and Wallace publish the theory of natural selection
  17. 17.  Q&A: Did Wallace publish anything else?
  18. 18.  Q&A: How did Darwin's family react to his theory?
  19. 19.  Darwin's first big idea: Descent with modification
  20. 20.  Fossil evidence for common ancestry
  21. 21.  Burgess Shale fossils
  22. 22.  Dinosaur National Monument fossils
  23. 23.  Fossil Butte fossils
  24. 24.  La Brea Tar Pits fossils
  25. 25.  Key facts from the fossil record
  26. 26.  Darwin's second big idea: Natural selection
  27. 27.  Evolution's ingredients: Variation, selection, and time
  28. 28.  Evolution in action: The rock pocket mouse
  29. 29.  Animation: Pocket mouse predation
  30. 30.  Coat color determined by forms of a single gene
  31. 31.  The odds of a mutation producing a black-coated mouse
  32. 32.  Time and selection
  33. 33.  Selection provides force for a new variant to spread
  34. 34.  Animation: Simulation of pocket mouse evolution
  35. 35.  Evolution works faster than you might think
  36. 36.  Q&A: How does the mutation arise?
  37. 37.  Q&A: What about black mice on a light background?
  38. 38.  Q&A: Selective difference for hetero- vs. homozygotes?
  39. 39.  Q&A: Black mice on black background, coincidence?
  40. 40.  Closing remarks from HHMI President Dr. Thomas Cech


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