Arrival of the Fittest
Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wagner, a professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich addresses the intriguing and long-standing question of how such a wide diversity of life arose. He doesn't dispute the importance of natural selection, but argues that natural selection can only operate on the variability that exists; something more must permit nature to spread out in the manner it has. He concludes that mechanisms that lead to innovation are most important; innovations upon which natural selection can operate. Wagner discusses both the microbial and the multicellular world. In the former, horizontal gene transfer, the sharing of genetic material among individuals of many species, allows new genetic combinations to arise remarkably quickly. These are interesting results, presented clearly, but nothing new. His work becomes more remarkable when he discusses research, conducted largely in his laboratory, that demonstrates the number of ways there are to solve critical metabolic problems. One of his striking findings is that the mechanisms responsible for life are surprisingly robust: iterative mutations, far more often than anyone expected, can maintain and at times enhance an organism's functionality. Wagner notes that "we can predict innovability even if we cannot predict individual innovations," and his work further undercuts any arguments for intelligent design.
