To The Best of Our Knowledge

from Wisconsin Public Radio

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What animals will still be living in the year 3000? Forget about tigers, rhinos and pandas. They'll go the way of the dodo bird. But scientist Peter Ward says rats and coyotes will flourish. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the future of evolution. Also, best-selling novelist Jean Auel imagines what life was like 30-thousand years ago.

Gregory Stock runs the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA, and the author of "Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future." He tells Jim Fleming that designing our babies' genes will begin as a mater of screening out diseases. He thinks developing technology makes genetic manipulation of our offspring inevitable and that the results are bound to be surprising. Also, paleontologist Peter Ward wrote "Future Evolution," with illustrations by Alexis Rockman. Ward tells Steve Paulson that big carnivores are unlikely to survive outside zoos but creatures that can survive around humans - like rats and coyotes - will thrive in the future. He also thinks plants will evolve herbicide resistant super-weeds.

SEGMENT 2:

Jean Auel is the author of the phenomenally successful "Earth's Children" series of books which began with "The Cave of the Clan Bear." Her latest is "The Shelters of Stone." Auel tells Anne Strainchamps about the extensive hands on research that informs her work. She's built snow caves and tanned animal hides. She thinks our ancestors 30 thousand years ago were a lot like us.

SEGMENT 3:

Alfred Russel Wallace is the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution through natural selection, even if Charles Darwin gets all the ink. Wallace was a great 19th century naturalist and fearless explorer. He was also a spiritualist who saw a divine master plan working itself out through his theory. Steve Paulson talks about Russell with historian Jane Camerini, editor of "The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader." And we hear passages read by actor Paul Boesing.

Books:

• Jean Auel, The Shelters of Stone (Crown)
• Jane R. Camerini, ed., The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader: A Selection of Writings from the Field (Johns Hopkins)
• Peter Ward, with images by Alexis Rockman, Future Evolution: An Illuminated History of Life to Come (Times Books)
• Gregory Stock, Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future (Houghton Mifflin)

Music:

• After the Return:
  Talking Heads w/ "Road to Nowhere"
  on "Little Creatures" CD
  Sire Records
  

• After Greg Stock:
  Money Mark w/ "Scenes From...."
  on "Mark's Keyboard Repair" CD
  Mo Wax/A&M Records

• After Peter Ward:
  Dougie Maclean w/ "The Origin"
  on "The Search" CD
  Dunkeld Records

• After Jean Auel:
  Eddie From Ohio w/ "Let's Get Mesolithic"
  on "Quick" CD
  Virginia Soul Records

• After Jane Camerini:
  The Rutles w/ "Let's Be Natural"
  on "The Rutles" CD
  Rhino

• Also, Dougie Maclean w/ "The Abyssal Plain"
  on "The Search" CD
  Dunkeld Records

  
  

Distribution dates:

• week of 06/30/2002 - hour 2