Completed Projects

How does an egg develop into a fully formed creature? How does the seemingly endless variety of animal forms evolve from the first simple living thing? The new science of “evo devo” reveals that these two mysteries have a single, amazing resolution. An ancient toolkit of body-building genes is used to forge new structures and creatures. New forms evolve through the tweaking of the developmental program that turns an egg into an adult. Marking the 150th anniversary of arguably the most influential scientific book ever written—Origin of Species—this two-hour special will offer a remarkable new answer to how biological complexity arises from, as Darwin put it, “so simple a beginning.”
Original Broadcast: Dec 29, 2009