To catch a glimpse of evolution, Pim Stemmer doesn't have to set sail for the Galapagos. He needn't trudge through the Costa Rican rain forest or blast into Antarctic sea ice. For a front-row view of evolution in action, Stemmer simply walks over to a lab bench at Maxygen, a biotech startup in Redwood City, Calif., where he oversees research and development. At Maxygen, researchers are tapping evolutionary principles to "breed" new proteins, successively fine-tuning specific traits-say, heat tolerance or the ability to stick to a cancer cell-by tinkering with the underlying genetic code and selecting only the best of the new genes for the next round of improvement. In farm fields and kennels, exploiting evolution is old hat. Farmers favor a corn crop that best survives summer, for instance, and with decades of patience, breeders can produce dogs as specialized as poodles and Pomeranians. But in the lab, evolving better proteins is a recent feat-and a faster one. By focusing their efforts at the genetic level, one molecule at a time, researchers can coax a protein toward perfection in just a matter of weeks. In the process, companies like Maxygen hope to crank out safer medications, more potent cleansers and healthier crops. Just a few years out of the gate, these young firms are already bringing new protein products to market, forging alliances with such giants as Dow Chemical, DuPont and Novartis and launching successful IPOs (see table, "Evolving Industry")-all evidence that "directed evolution" is really happening, not just in the test tube, but also in the marketplace.

Evolutionary Alternative