1st Edition

Emerging Syntheses In Science

By David Pines Copyright 1988
    252 Pages
    by CRC Press

    252 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Evolution of self-replicating macromolecules through natural selection is a dynamically ordered process. Two concepts are introduced to describe the physical regularity of macromolecular evolution: sequence space and quasi-species. Natural selection means localization of a mutant distribution in sequence space. This localized distribution, called the quasi-species, is centered around a master sequence (or a degenerate set), that the biologist would call the wild-type. The self-ordering of such a system is an essential consequence of its formation through self-reproduction of its macromolecular consti tuents, a process that in the dynamical equations expresses itself by positive diagonal coefficients called selective values. The theory describes how population numbers of wild type and mutants are related to the distribution of selective values, that is to say, how value topography maps into population topography. For selectively (nearly) neutral mutants appearing in the quasi- species distribution, population numbers are greatly enhanced as compared to those of disadvantageous mutants, even more so in continuous domains of such selectively valuable mutants. As a consequence, mutants far distant from the wild type may occur because they are produced with the help of highly populated, less distant precursors. Since values are cohesively distributed, like mountains on earth, and since their positions are multiply connected in the high-dimensional sequence space, the overpopulation of (nearly) neural mutants provides guidance for the evolutionary process. Localization in sequence space, subject to a threshold in the fidelity of reproduction, is steadily challenged until an optimal state is reached. The model has been designed according to experimentally determined properties of self-replicating molecules. The conclusions reached from the theoretical models can be used to construct machines that provide optimal conditions for the evolution of functional macromolecules.

    "Foreword -- The Concept of the Institute 1 -- Spin Glass Hamiltonians: A Bridge Between Biology, Statistical Mechanics and Computer Science -- Macromolecular Evolution: Dynamical Ordering in Sequence Space -- Evolutionary Theory of Genotypes and Phenotypes: Towards a Mathematical Synthesis 1 -- Prospects for a Synthesis in the Human Behavioral Sciences -- The Emergence of Evolutionary Psychology -- War in Evolutionary Perspective -- The Relationship of Modern Archeology to Other Disciplines -- Reconstructing the Past through Chemistry -- The Conscious and Unconscious Stream of Thought -- Emerging Syntheses in Science: Conscious and Unconscious Processes -- Brain Mechanisms Underlying Visual Hallucinations -- Solitons in Biological Molecules 1 -- The New Biology and its Human Implications -- Biomolecules -- Computing With Attractors: From Self-repairing Computers, to Ultradiffusion, and the Application of Dynamical Systems to Human Behavior -- Fundamental Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy -- Complex Systems Theory 1 -- Mathematics and the Sciences -- Applications of Mathematics to Theoretical Computer Science -- Linguistics and Computing -- Dissipation, Information, Computational Complexity and the Definition of Organization -- Plans for the Future"

    Biography

    Pines, David