Is There a Randomness in Mutations?

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If we could start back with whatever initial conditions life had and let everything go, how similar would it be? Some see the tape is replaying more accurately. Others seeing less. Both poles are fun to explore, because there's no doubt that evolution repeats itself. But you just have to kind of drille down a little bit to say, well, if i've really presented very similar circumstances to a highly to a large population of individuals with a pretty significant pool of mutations to draw from, you will draw the same lucky card repeatedly.

Evolution is a messy business, involving as it does selection pressures, mutations, genetic drift, and the effects of random external interventions. So in the end, how much of it is predictable, and how much is in the hands of chance? Today we’re thrilled to have as a guest my evil (but more respectable, by most measures) twin, the biologist Sean B. Carroll. Sean is both a leader of the modern evo-devo revolution, and a wonderful and diverse writer. We talk about the importance of randomness and unpredictability in life, from the evolution of species to the daily routine of every individual.

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Sean B. Carroll received a Ph.D. in immunology from Tufts University. He is currently the Andrew and Mary Balo and Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland, Vice-President for Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Executive Director of HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, and Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin. His new book, A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You, explores the role of chance in the development of life.

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