Environmental Science Institute

"Can we really do that?"... Hollywood TV shows are full of hi-tech crime-solving based on DNA analysis. But can scientists really do what you see on TV? UT Austin's Dr. David Hillis is a MacArthur Award winning scientist who has actually helped solve a bizarre murder case with his science, a field called systematic phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic analysis is the study of evolutionary relationships to determine how things are related to each other in the past. In addition to solving crimes, Dr. Hillis has used his science to look at an incredibly diverse group of questions from the history of diseases to an effort to begin a tree of life for every living species on earth. He will talk about his contribution to real world CSI and his ideas for a new hand held machine that could identify any living thing from a sample of tissue.