From the "Modern Synthesis" to cybernetics: Ivan Ivanovich
... unbiased reading of his texts difficult. Here we show that taking all of his works into consideration (including those only available in Russian) paints a much more dynamic and exciting picture of what he tried to achieve. Schmalhausen pioneered the integration of a developmental perspective into ev ...
... unbiased reading of his texts difficult. Here we show that taking all of his works into consideration (including those only available in Russian) paints a much more dynamic and exciting picture of what he tried to achieve. Schmalhausen pioneered the integration of a developmental perspective into ev ...
Reconceptualising Evolution by Natural Selection
... change as opposed to a mere statistical effect of other causes, at what level this putative cause operates and whether it can be distinguished from drift. Borrowing tools from the causal modelling literature, I argue that natural selection is best conceived as a causal process resulting from individ ...
... change as opposed to a mere statistical effect of other causes, at what level this putative cause operates and whether it can be distinguished from drift. Borrowing tools from the causal modelling literature, I argue that natural selection is best conceived as a causal process resulting from individ ...
The Evolution of Aging 3
... Science Abstract: In 1882 Weismann formally proposed that programmed aging was an evolved characteristic, an adaptation of organism design, which had an evolutionary purpose. Darwin had previously suggested that aging was an evolved characteristic despite conflicts with Darwinian evolutionary mechan ...
... Science Abstract: In 1882 Weismann formally proposed that programmed aging was an evolved characteristic, an adaptation of organism design, which had an evolutionary purpose. Darwin had previously suggested that aging was an evolved characteristic despite conflicts with Darwinian evolutionary mechan ...
On Sexual Reproduction as a New Critique of the Theory of Natural
... because they would have a long time available for making copies of themselves. Replicators of high longevity would therefore tend to become more numerous and, other things being equal, there would have been an ‘evolutionary trend’ towards greater longevity in the population of molecules. But other t ...
... because they would have a long time available for making copies of themselves. Replicators of high longevity would therefore tend to become more numerous and, other things being equal, there would have been an ‘evolutionary trend’ towards greater longevity in the population of molecules. But other t ...
Fitness “kinematics”: biological function, altruism, and organism
... to natural selection must attach to alternative types present in a population (genes, phenotypes, etc.), since it’s types, not tokens, which can be inherited. It’s hard to see, though, how behaviors which may or may not occur during different organisms’ lives could suddenly change the fitness of the ...
... to natural selection must attach to alternative types present in a population (genes, phenotypes, etc.), since it’s types, not tokens, which can be inherited. It’s hard to see, though, how behaviors which may or may not occur during different organisms’ lives could suddenly change the fitness of the ...
Truth and Reconciliation for Group Selection
... examples of social adaptations: the good Samaritan, the soldier who heroically dies in battle, the honest person who cannot tell a lie. We admire these virtues and call them social adaptations because they are good for others and for society as a whole--but they are not locally advantageous. Charita ...
... examples of social adaptations: the good Samaritan, the soldier who heroically dies in battle, the honest person who cannot tell a lie. We admire these virtues and call them social adaptations because they are good for others and for society as a whole--but they are not locally advantageous. Charita ...
Thinking About Evolutionary Mechanisms: Natural Selection
... process of evolution includes all mechanisms of genetic change that occur in organisms through time, with special emphasis on those mechanisms that promote the adaptation of organisms to their environment or that lead to the formation of new, reproductively isolated species” (Hartl and Clark, 1989, ...
... process of evolution includes all mechanisms of genetic change that occur in organisms through time, with special emphasis on those mechanisms that promote the adaptation of organisms to their environment or that lead to the formation of new, reproductively isolated species” (Hartl and Clark, 1989, ...
Skipper/Millstein, “Evolutionary Mechanisms” - Philsci
... process of evolution includes all mechanisms of genetic change that occur in organisms through time, with special emphasis on those mechanisms that promote the adaptation of organisms to their environment or that lead to the formation of new, reproductively isolated species” (Hartl and Clark, 1989, ...
... process of evolution includes all mechanisms of genetic change that occur in organisms through time, with special emphasis on those mechanisms that promote the adaptation of organisms to their environment or that lead to the formation of new, reproductively isolated species” (Hartl and Clark, 1989, ...
Domains, Brains and Evolution
... Can any of these options be turned into the kind of principled definition of a domain that we are seeking? The answer, we think, is ‘yes’, and it is evolutionary psychology that shows us how. According to the fifth and final option on the list, a domain is a problem or set of problems routinely face ...
... Can any of these options be turned into the kind of principled definition of a domain that we are seeking? The answer, we think, is ‘yes’, and it is evolutionary psychology that shows us how. According to the fifth and final option on the list, a domain is a problem or set of problems routinely face ...
New elements in modern biological theories of aging
... non-dividing cells of mammals. Genetic mutations occur and accumulate with increasing age, causing cells to deteriorate and malfunction. Damage to mitochondrial DNA might lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, aging results from damage to the genetic integrity of the body cells. In the 1930s, ...
... non-dividing cells of mammals. Genetic mutations occur and accumulate with increasing age, causing cells to deteriorate and malfunction. Damage to mitochondrial DNA might lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, aging results from damage to the genetic integrity of the body cells. In the 1930s, ...
An Introduction to Biological Aging Theory
... There is currently no scientific disagreement regarding the idea that evolution of Earth life has occurred and the vast majority of biological observations match Darwin’s concept. Introductory biology courses currently teach that Darwin’s natural selection theory is scientifically generally accepted ...
... There is currently no scientific disagreement regarding the idea that evolution of Earth life has occurred and the vast majority of biological observations match Darwin’s concept. Introductory biology courses currently teach that Darwin’s natural selection theory is scientifically generally accepted ...
A Unifying Theory of Biological Function van Hateren, Johannes
... This factor reduces the fitness of all organisms in a population when the population size approaches the environmental carrying capacity (e.g., when food or space becomes scarce). Frequency-dependent effects, such as those occurring in mimicry, are automatically included in F as well. Factors at a l ...
... This factor reduces the fitness of all organisms in a population when the population size approaches the environmental carrying capacity (e.g., when food or space becomes scarce). Frequency-dependent effects, such as those occurring in mimicry, are automatically included in F as well. Factors at a l ...
Multi-level Selection and the Major Transitions in - Philsci
... The debate in evolutionary biology over ‘levels of selection’, long of interest to philosophers of science, has undergone a subtle transformation in recent years. The transformation co-incides, more or less, with the increasing prominence of ‘multilevel selection theory’ in the evolutionary literatu ...
... The debate in evolutionary biology over ‘levels of selection’, long of interest to philosophers of science, has undergone a subtle transformation in recent years. The transformation co-incides, more or less, with the increasing prominence of ‘multilevel selection theory’ in the evolutionary literatu ...
Adaptation and Evolutionary Theory
... is added. What sort of variation is significant?That present day alternative we should consider. which can lead to adaptive evolutionary changes. It is not surprising that in finite populations Though the world is such that individuals must of unique individuals some variants leave more be unique th ...
... is added. What sort of variation is significant?That present day alternative we should consider. which can lead to adaptive evolutionary changes. It is not surprising that in finite populations Though the world is such that individuals must of unique individuals some variants leave more be unique th ...
Origins of evolutionary transitions
... operates on a population.2 This implies that a mere aggregation of entities into groups is insufficient (Mayr 1982; Newman 2003). The entities need to be compounded in such a way that higher-level selection takes place. There have been many major evolutionary events that this definition of a transit ...
... operates on a population.2 This implies that a mere aggregation of entities into groups is insufficient (Mayr 1982; Newman 2003). The entities need to be compounded in such a way that higher-level selection takes place. There have been many major evolutionary events that this definition of a transit ...
“Adaptation”1
... confusing. In order to build my account of the relevant concepts, I have found it useful to fix one aspect of usage by fiat. I shall employ the term “adaptation” in an historical sense, the terms “adapted” and “adaptedness” in an ahistorical sense. Fleetness contributes to the adaptedness of a deer ...
... confusing. In order to build my account of the relevant concepts, I have found it useful to fix one aspect of usage by fiat. I shall employ the term “adaptation” in an historical sense, the terms “adapted” and “adaptedness” in an ahistorical sense. Fleetness contributes to the adaptedness of a deer ...
Colonies Are Individuals: Revisiting the Superorganism Revival
... adopted in the evolutionary literature, contrasting it with a similarity approach. Similarity approaches are, primarily, arguments by analogy of colonies to organisms. Though it is useful to distinguish between these two approaches, they are not cleanly distinct from one another. Superorganism argum ...
... adopted in the evolutionary literature, contrasting it with a similarity approach. Similarity approaches are, primarily, arguments by analogy of colonies to organisms. Though it is useful to distinguish between these two approaches, they are not cleanly distinct from one another. Superorganism argum ...
Chasing Shadows: Natural Selection and Adaptation
... (1982) offer the example of individual selection without a change in gene frequencies. Consider a case of extreme heterosis. For some locus with two alleles A and a, the heterozygotes (Aa) are on average extremely robust, while the homozygous condition (AA or aa) is lethal. Only the heterozygotes su ...
... (1982) offer the example of individual selection without a change in gene frequencies. Consider a case of extreme heterosis. For some locus with two alleles A and a, the heterozygotes (Aa) are on average extremely robust, while the homozygous condition (AA or aa) is lethal. Only the heterozygotes su ...
philosophy of biology - Carol Eunmi LEE
... census size is not cut precisely in half in the passage from egg to adult. And we say that the probability that heterozygote parents will produce a heterozygote offspring is 0.5 even though we know that some such matings yield frequencies of heterozygotes that differ from 0.5. If we are describing a ...
... census size is not cut precisely in half in the passage from egg to adult. And we say that the probability that heterozygote parents will produce a heterozygote offspring is 0.5 even though we know that some such matings yield frequencies of heterozygotes that differ from 0.5. If we are describing a ...
The structure of evolution by natural selection
... Karl Popper was only the most infamous of a long line of commentators – biologists, philosophers, and others – who thus declared Darwin’s theory to be a tautology.4 Popper originally held, though later partly recanted his claim, that Darwin’s PNS was, in an almost incoherent turn of phrase, ‘almost ...
... Karl Popper was only the most infamous of a long line of commentators – biologists, philosophers, and others – who thus declared Darwin’s theory to be a tautology.4 Popper originally held, though later partly recanted his claim, that Darwin’s PNS was, in an almost incoherent turn of phrase, ‘almost ...
Reflecting on Darwin
... he has ‘hardly ever admired a book more than Paley’s Natural Theology’ (Darwin, 1985., vol. 7, letter to J. Lubbock, 22 November 1859: 388). Darwin’s theory of natural selection appears in fact to have absorbed ideas from Paley’s natural theology – among them his early beliefs in pan-adaptationism a ...
... he has ‘hardly ever admired a book more than Paley’s Natural Theology’ (Darwin, 1985., vol. 7, letter to J. Lubbock, 22 November 1859: 388). Darwin’s theory of natural selection appears in fact to have absorbed ideas from Paley’s natural theology – among them his early beliefs in pan-adaptationism a ...
Reviving the Superorganism
... Individuals can be regarded as groups of genes that have become functionally organized by natural selection to perpetuate themselves. We can use this analogy to show how groups of individuals can be similarly functionally organized, in which case the individuals acquire the status of alleles and the ...
... Individuals can be regarded as groups of genes that have become functionally organized by natural selection to perpetuate themselves. We can use this analogy to show how groups of individuals can be similarly functionally organized, in which case the individuals acquire the status of alleles and the ...
Why and how do we age? - American Federation for Aging Research
... accidents guarantee that there are always more younger individuals reproducing than older ones. Genes and mutations that have harmful effects that appear only after reproduction is over do not affect reproductive success and therefore can be passed on to future generations. In 1952, Peter Medawar pr ...
... accidents guarantee that there are always more younger individuals reproducing than older ones. Genes and mutations that have harmful effects that appear only after reproduction is over do not affect reproductive success and therefore can be passed on to future generations. In 1952, Peter Medawar pr ...
Formation of vestigial organs
... millions of years later in the eyes of moles, then a genetic mechanism for vestigialization cannot be the main mechanism. It cannot be the main mechanism because there are vestigial structures in modern humans, who have not existed for such a length of time as moles. While genetic theories could pos ...
... millions of years later in the eyes of moles, then a genetic mechanism for vestigialization cannot be the main mechanism. It cannot be the main mechanism because there are vestigial structures in modern humans, who have not existed for such a length of time as moles. While genetic theories could pos ...
Evolution of ageing
Enquiry into the evolution of aging aims to explain why almost all living things weaken and die with age. There is not yet agreement in the scientific community on a single answer. The evolutionary origin of senescence remains a fundamental unsolved problem in biology.Historically, ageing was first likened to ""wear and tear"": living bodies get weaker, shoes get wrecked with use or, with exposure to air and moisture, iron objects rust. But this idea was discredited in the 19th century when the second law of thermodynamics was formalized. Entropy (disorder) must increase inevitably within a closed system, but living beings are not closed systems. It is a defining feature of life that it takes in free energy from the environment and unloads its entropy as waste. Living systems can even build themselves up from seed, and routinely repair themselves. There is no thermodynamic necessity for senescence. In addition, generic damage or ""wear and tear"" theories could not explain why biologically similar organisms (e.g. mammals) exhibited such dramatically different lifespans. Furthermore, this initial theory failed to explain why most organisms maintain themselves so efficiently until adulthood and then, after reproductive maturity, begin to succumb to age-related damage.