scholarly journals Natural Selection beyond Life? A Workshop Report

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1051
Author(s):  
Sylvain Charlat ◽  
André Ariew ◽  
Pierrick Bourrat ◽  
María Ferreira Ruiz ◽  
Thomas Heams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Dissipative Structures ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Biological Concepts ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Physical Phenomena

Natural selection is commonly seen not just as an explanation for adaptive evolution, but as the inevitable consequence of “heritable variation in fitness among individuals”. Although it remains embedded in biological concepts, such a formalisation makes it tempting to explore whether this precondition may be met not only in life as we know it, but also in other physical systems. This would imply that these systems are subject to natural selection and may perhaps be investigated in a biological framework, where properties are typically examined in light of their putative functions. Here we relate the major questions that were debated during a three-day workshop devoted to discussing whether natural selection may take place in non-living physical systems. We start this report with a brief overview of research fields dealing with “life-like” or “proto-biotic” systems, where mimicking evolution by natural selection in test tubes stands as a major objective. We contend the challenge may be as much conceptual as technical. Taking the problem from a physical angle, we then discuss the framework of dissipative structures. Although life is viewed in this context as a particular case within a larger ensemble of physical phenomena, this approach does not provide general principles from which natural selection can be derived. Turning back to evolutionary biology, we ask to what extent the most general formulations of the necessary conditions or signatures of natural selection may be applicable beyond biology. In our view, such a cross-disciplinary jump is impeded by reliance on individuality as a central yet implicit and loosely defined concept. Overall, these discussions thus lead us to conjecture that understanding, in physico-chemical terms, how individuality emerges and how it can be recognised, will be essential in the search for instances of evolution by natural selection outside of living systems.

scholarly journals Natural Selection beyond Life? A Workshop Report

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Charlat ◽  
André Ariew ◽  
Pierrick Bourrat ◽  
Maria Ferreira Ruiz ◽  
Thomas Heams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Dissipative Structures ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Biological Concepts ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Physical Phenomena

Natural selection is commonly seen not just as an explanation for adaptive evolution, but as the inevitable consequence of “heritable variation in fitness among individuals”. Although it remains embedded in biological concepts, such a formalisation makes it tempting to explore whether this precondition may be met not only in life as we know it, but also in other physical systems. This would imply that these systems are subject to natural selection and may perhaps be investigated in a biological framework, where properties are typically examined in light of their putative functions. Here we relate the major questions that were debated during a three-day workshop[1] devoted to discussing whether natural selection may take place in non-living physical systems. We start this report with a brief overview of research fields dealing with “life-like” or “proto-biotic” systems, where mimicking evolution by natural selection in test tubes stands as a major objective. We contend the challenge may be as much conceptual as technical. Taking the problem from a physical angle, we then discuss the framework of dissipative structures. Although life is viewed in this context as a particular case within a larger ensemble of physical phenomena, this approach does not provide general principles from which natural selection could be derived. Turning back to evolutionary biology, we ask to what extent the most general formulations of the necessary conditions or signatures of natural selection may be applicable beyond biology. In our view, such a cross-disciplinary jump is in large part impeded by reliance on individuality as a central yet implicit and loosely defined concept. Overall, these discussions thus lead us to conjecture that understanding, in physico-chemical terms, how individuality emerges and how it can be recognised, will be essential in the search for instances of evolution by natural selection outside of living systems. [1] Natural Selection Beyond Life? Observing the physico-chemical world through Darwinian glasses; 12-15 November 2019 - Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques, Cargèse, France

An Evolutionary Approach to Synthetic Biology: Zen and the Art of Creating Life

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (1_2) ◽  
pp. 179-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Ray
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Artificial Medium ◽  
Natural Form ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Physical Laws

Our concepts of biology, evolution, and complexity are constrained by having observed only a single instance of life, life on earth. A truly comparative biology is needed to extend these concepts. Because we cannot observe life on other planets, we are left with the alternative of creating Artificial Life forms on earth. I will discuss the approach of inoculating evolution by natural selection into the medium of the digital computer. This is not a physical/chemical medium; it is a logical/informational medium. Thus, these new instances of evolution are not subject to the same physical laws as organic evolution (e.g., the laws of thermodynamics) and exist in what amounts to another universe, governed by the “physical laws” of the logic of the computer. This exercise gives us a broader perspective on what evolution is and what it does. An evolutionary approach to synthetic biology consists of inoculating the process of evolution by natural selection into an artificial medium. Evolution is then allowed to find the natural forms of living organisms in the artificial medium. These are not models of life, but independent instances of life. This essay is intended to communicate a way of thinking about synthetic biology that leads to a particular approach: to understand and respect the natural form of the artificial medium, to facilitate the process of evolution in generating forms that are adapted to the medium, and to let evolution find forms and processes that naturally exploit the possibilities inherent in the medium. Examples are cited of synthetic biology embedded in the computational medium, where in addition to being an exercise in experimental comparative evolutionary biology, it is also a possible means of harnessing the evolutionary process for the production of complex computer software.

scholarly journals Darwin would have loved DNA: celebrating Darwin 200

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindell Bromham
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Genetics ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
To Come ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Biology Research

Analysis of DNA sequences now plays a key role in evolutionary biology research. If Darwin were to come back today, I think he would be absolutely delighted with molecular evolutionary genetics, for three reasons. First, it solved one of the greatest problems for his theory of evolution by natural selection. Second, it gives us a tool that can be used to investigate many of the questions he found the most fascinating. And third, DNA data confirm Darwin's grand view of evolution.

Evolution: A Very Short Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Charlesworth ◽  
Deborah Charlesworth
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Alfred Russel Wallace ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Special Creation

Less than 150 years ago, the view that living species were the result of special creation by God was still dominant. The recognition by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace of the mechanism of evolution by natural selection has completely transformed our understanding of the living world, including our own origins. Evolution: A Very Short Introduction provides a summary of the process of evolution by natural selection, highlighting the wide range of evidence, and explains how natural selection gives rise to adaptations and eventually, over many generations, to new species. It introduces the central concepts of the field of evolutionary biology and discusses some of the remaining questions regarding evolutionary processes.

Evolution and cancer

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Tom Donnem ◽  
Kingsley Micklem ◽  
Francesco Pezzella
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Genetic Disease ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Tumour Growth ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
The Body ◽  
Evolutionary Medicine ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Evolution is the process by which living organisms change through time, and natural selection is the process which leads some organisms to thrive and others to die out. Evolutionary medicine tries to explain why traits leading to susceptibility to disease get maintained or even positively selected. Cancer, being a genetic disease, can be analysed as an example of evolution by natural selection. The observation that humans in developed societies have much higher rates of cancer can be analysed and explained by an evolutionary approach. At a cellular level, tumours are made up by a population of cells continuously growing and mutating while interacting with the microenvironment of the body. Thus, the mechanism of changes in individual tumours is the process of natural selection. Evolutionary biology is now increasingly used to better understand tumour growth and therefore to improve treatments.

The Gene's-Eye View of Evolution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Arvid Ågren
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Evolutionary Genetics ◽  
Selfish Gene ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Social ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

To many evolutionary biologists, the central challenge of their discipline is to explain adaptation, the appearance of design in the living world. With the theory of evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin elegantly showed how a purely mechanistic process can achieve this striking feature of nature. Since Darwin, the way many biologists think about evolution and natural selection is as a theory about individual organisms. Over a century later, a subtle but radical shift in perspective emerged with the gene’s-eye view of evolution in which natural selection was conceptualized as a struggle between genes for replication and transmission to the next generation. This viewpoint culminated with the publication of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (Oxford University Press, 1976) and is now commonly referred to as selfish gene thinking. The gene’s-eye view has subsequently played a central role in evolutionary biology, although it continues to attract controversy. The central aim of this accessible book is to show how the gene’s-eye view differs from the traditional organismal account of evolution, trace its historical origins, clarify typical misunderstandings and, by using examples from contemporary experimental work, show why so many evolutionary biologists still consider it an indispensable heuristic. The book concludes by discussing how selfish gene thinking fits into ongoing debates in evolutionary biology, and what they tell us about the future of the gene’s-eye view of evolution. The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution is suitable for graduate-level students taking courses in evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, and evolutionary genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. It will also appeal to a broader, interdisciplinary audience from the social sciences and humanities including philosophers and historians of science

Evolution and cancer

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Tom Donnem ◽  
Kingsley Micklem ◽  
Francesco Pezzella
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Genetic Disease ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Tumour Growth ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
The Body ◽  
Evolutionary Medicine ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Evolution is the process by which living organisms change through time, and natural selection is the process which leads some organisms to thrive and others to die out. Evolutionary medicine tries to explain why traits leading to susceptibility to disease get maintained or even positively selected. Cancer, being a genetic disease, can be analysed as an example of evolution by natural selection. The observation that humans in developed societies have much higher rates of cancer can be analysed and explained by an evolutionary approach. At a cellular level, tumours are made up by a population of cells continuously growing and mutating while interacting with the microenvironment of the body. Thus, the mechanism of changes in individual tumours is the process of natural selection. Evolutionary biology is now increasingly used to better understand tumour growth and therefore to improve treatments.

Evolution 101

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Ford Denison
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Transfer Rna ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Rna Genes

This chapter considers some definitions and fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology, with a particular focus on the power of natural selection to improve the adaptation of individual plants and animals to their environment. It begins with a discussion of evolution by natural selection as a well-tested scientific theory, along with three conditions that must be met in the evolution of species by natural selection: first, there must be differences among individual members of the species; second, individuals must have some tendency to inherit the characteristics of their parents; and third, inherited differences must affect reproductive success. The chapter proceeds by assessing the implications of these changes within species for agriculture. It also gives an example of how populations evolve by natural selection and concludes with an analysis of the evolution of transfer RNA genes via less-fit intermediates.

scholarly journals A Quantitative Simulation of Coevolution with Mutation Using Playing Cards

2019 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-132
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Hoagstrom ◽  
Lin Xiang ◽  
Nicole Lewis-Rogers ◽  
Patrice K. Connors ◽  
Ami Sessions-Robinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Beneficial Mutation ◽  
Differential Survival ◽  
Teaching Evolution ◽  
Undergraduate Biology ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Biological Concepts ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Active-learning approaches can improve understanding of core biological concepts. We describe a revised hands-on simulation for teaching evolution by natural selection, which focuses on prey–predator coevolution in escape/pursuit speed. It illustrates how selection pressure on individual speed increases average population speed through differential survival, while also reducing variation in speed among individuals. A simulated beneficial mutation helps differentiate the generation of individual traits from the process of natural selection and illustrates the effects of a beneficial mutation on immediate and subsequent generations. Overall, this exercise addresses several common misconceptions and allows students to collect and assess their own data, quantitatively. We report results from pre- and post-assessments in an introductory, undergraduate biology class, which indicate significantly improved understanding associated with the simulation.

Divergence and Possible Consilience Between Evolutionary Biology and Sociology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Machalek
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

During its emergence as a new academic discipline in the late 19th century, sociology was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. By the mid-20th century, however, biological thinking in general and evolutionary theory in particular had waned in influence in American sociology. This began to change during the last quarter of the 20th century—a development due in large part to the work of Edward O. Wilson, a prominent biologist and one of the founders of sociobiology. By the dawn of the 21st century, evolutionary thinking had again gained a foothold in the social sciences, including sociology. However, full consilience between evolutionary biology and sociology has not yet been achieved. This chapter reviews issues in terms of which evolutionary biology and sociology converge in some instances and diverge in others. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the prospects for the development of a robust evolutionary sociology.

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