Arrival of the Fittest
eBook - ePub

Arrival of the Fittest

  1. 999 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Arrival of the Fittest

About this book

The power of Darwin's theory of natural selection is beyond doubt, it explains how useful adaptations are preserved over generations. But evolution's biggest mystery eluded Darwin: how those adaptations arise in the first place. Can random mutations over a 3.8 billion years be solely responsible for wings, eyeballs, knees, photosynthesis, and the rest of nature's creative marvels? And by calling these mutations 'random', are we not just admitting our own ignorance? What if we could now uncover the wellspring of all biological innovation?Renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner presents the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using cutting-edge experimental and computational technologies, he has found that adaptations are in fact driven by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.Consider the Arctic cod, a fish that lives in waters cold enough to turn the internal fluids of most organisms into ice crystals. And yet the Arctic cod survives by producing 'natural anti-freeze', proteins that lower the freezing temperature of its body fluids. The invention of those proteins is an archetypal example of nature's enormous powers of creativity.Meticulously researched, carefully argued, and full of fascinating examples from the animal kingdom, Arrival of the Fittest offers up the final puzzle piece in the mystery of life's rich diversity.

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Yes, you can access Arrival of the Fittest by Andreas Wagner in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Science General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Prologue: World Enough, and Time
  6. Chapter One: What Darwin Didn’t Know
  7. Chapter Two: The Origin of Innovation
  8. Chapter Three: The Universal Library
  9. Chapter Four: Shapely Beauties
  10. Chapter Five: Command and Control
  11. Chapter Six: The Hidden Architecture
  12. Chapter Seven: From Nature to Technology
  13. Epilogue: Plato’s Cave
  14. Acknowledgments
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography