Sean Carroll interview on Cosmic Log

Following after yesterday's profile of Don Johanson, Alan Boyle interviews evolutionary geneticist Sean Carroll about his new book, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species.

The interview focuses mainly on figures of anthropological interest -- Eugene Dubois and Louis and Mary Leakey. An excerpt:

[When the Leakeys held Zinjanthropus] up to the world, the world changed. The attention on human origins swung back to Africa for good, and in a few years they found Homo erectus and Homo habilis at Olduvai Gorge. Their funding went up, more people came to the field to help with the search, and the pace of discovery quickened. But that was after a 31-year mission that was fairly lonely, where you're living in the bush without any money. They were a pretty determined pair.