Principles of evolution : from the Planck Epoch to complex multicellular life

400 Pages·2011·4.5 MB·English

by  Meyer-Ortmanns, Hildegard, Thurner, Stefan (eds)

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·
Hildegard Meyer-Ortmanns
Stefan Thurner
Editors
PRINCIPLES
OF EVOLUTION
From the Planck Epoch to Complex
Multicellular Life
123
Editors
HildegardMeyer-Ortmanns StefanThurner
JacobsUniversityBremen MedizinischeUniversitätWien
SchoolofEngineering&Science Inst.fürWissenschaftKomplexer
CampusRing8 Systeme
28759Bremen WähringerGürtel18–20
Germany 1090Wien
[e-mail] Austria
[e-mail]
SeriesEditors:
AvshalomC.Elitzur
Bar-IlanUniversity,UnitofInterdisciplinaryStudies,52900Ramat-Gan,Israel
email:[e-mail]
LauraMersini-Houghton
Dept.Physics,UniversityofNorthCarolina,ChapelHill,NC27599-3255,USA
email:[e-mail]
MaximilianA.Schlosshauer
NielsBohrInstitute,Blegdamsvej17,2100Copenhagen,Denmark
email:[e-mail]
MarkP.Silverman
TrinityCollege,Dept.Physics,HartfordCT06106,USA
email:[e-mail]
JackA.Tuszynski
UniversityofAlberta,Dept.Physics,EdmontonABT6G1Z2,Canada
email:[e-mail]
RüdigerVaas
UniversityofGiessen,CenterforPhilosophyandFoundationsofScience,35394Giessen,Germany
email:[e-mail]
H.DieterZeh
GaibergerStraße38,69151Waldhilsbach,Germany
email:[e-mail]
ISSN1612-3018
ISBN978-3-642-18136-8 e-ISBN978-3-642-18137-5
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-18137-5
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011922328
(cid:2)c Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2011
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Preface
The year 2009 was celebrated worldwide as Darwin year, 200 years after Charles
Darwin’sbirthand150yearsaftertheappearanceofhisseminalbookOntheOrigin
ofSpecies.Countlesscontributionsinboththescientificandpopularmediarevived
the ongoing controversy between Darwinism and modern evolution theory on one
handandcreationism–devoidofanyscientificbasis–ontheother.Thediscussions
wereoftenpolemicandvariedintheirdegreeofobjectiveness.Thisinspiredusto
suggestacomprehensivesurveyofrecentachievementsinunderstandingevolution
fromapurelyscientificpointofview.
The contributions are from internationally known experts from various disci-
plines, writing about evolutionary theory from the perspective of their own fields,
rangingfrommathematics,physics,andcosmology,tobiochemistryandcellbiol-
ogy.Theconcentrationonnaturalsciencesmeansthatonlysomeaspectsofcultural
evolutionarecovered.Seeminglysimplequestionsareposed,concerningtheorigin
oflife,theoriginoftheuniverse,theconceptofself-organizationwithouttheneed
forexternalinterference,theprobabilityoflifecomingintoexistence“bychance”,
and the role of contingency as compared to necessity; but instead of simple and
prematureanswersbeingproposed,thequestionsarerefinedandspecifieduntilan
answercanbearrivedatusingtoolsfromthenaturalsciences.Scientificchallenges
correspond to reducing a complex problem by breaking it up into parts, finding
commonunderlyingmechanismsintheplethoraofphenomena,orreproducingevo-
lutionaryprocessesinlabexperimentsorcomputersimulations;deeperinsightand
involvementinthesechallengesusuallygoalongwithfascination,amazement,and,
finally,respectfortheoutcomeofevolutioninitsfullvariety.Wehopetocontribute
toalltheseaspectswithourcompilationofprogressinthetheoryofevolution.
Thebookisaddressedtoreaderswithabackgroundinlifesciencesandinterest
inmathematicalmodeling,orwithamathematicalbackgroundinmodelingandan
interestinbiologicalapplications.
We thank the authors for their contributions and are indebted to the staff of
Springer-Verlagfortheirsupportduringthepreparationofthisbook.
Bremen,Germany HildegardMeyer-Ortmanns
Vienna,Austria StefanThurner
August2010
vii

Contents
1 Introduction................................................... 1
HildegardMeyer-Ortmanns
PartI PrinciplesofEvolution
2 PhysicalPrinciplesofEvolution.................................. 45
PeterSchuster
3 The Interplay of Replication, Variation and Selection
intheDynamicsofEvolvingPopulations.......................... 81
RichardA.Blythe
4 ASimpleGeneralModelofEvolutionaryDynamics................119
StefanThurner
5 CanWeRecognizeanInnovation?PerspectivefromanEvolving
NetworkModel ................................................145
SanjayJainandSandeepKrishna
PartII FromRandomtoComplexStructures:
TheConceptofSelf-OrganizationforGalaxies,
Asters,andSpindles
6 How Stochastic Dynamics Far from Equilibrium Can Create
NonrandomPatterns ...........................................175
GunterM.Schütz
7 StructureFormationintheUniverse .............................189
MatthiasBartelmann
ix