Research Catalog

Title

Compositional evolution : the impact of sex, symbiosis, and modularity on the gradualist framework of evolution / Richard A. Watson.

Author

Watson, Richard A., 1968-

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2006], ©2006.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 324 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

"No biological concept has had greater impact on the way we view ourselves and the world around us than the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's masterful contribution was to provide an algorithmic model (a formal step-by-step procedure) of how adaptation may take place in biological systems. However, the simple process of linear incremental improvement that he described is only one algorithmic possibility, and certain biological phenomena provide the possibility of implementing alternative processes. In Compositional Evolution, Richard Watson uses the tools of computer science and computational biology to show that certain mechanisms of genetic variation (such as sex, gene transfer, and symbiosis) allowing the combination of preadapted genetic material enable an evolutionary process, compositional evolution, that is algorithmically distinct from the Darwinian gradualist framework."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

The Vienna series in theoretical biology

Uniform Title

Vienna series in theoretical biology.

Subjects

• Computational biology
• Evolutionary computation
• Evolution (Biology) > Mathematical models

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [301]-318) and index.

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. Gradual evolution -- 3. Compositional evolution -- 4. Modularity -- 5. Mutation -- 6. Sexual recombination -- 7. Symbiotic encapsulation -- 8. How fast is fast? -- 9. Scaling up evolution -- 10. The impact of compositional evolution.

ISBN

026223243X (hc : alk. paper)

LCCN

2005043852

OCLC

• ocm58985705
• SCSB-5230719

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries