The Arrival of the Fittest
Book 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,…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Arrival of the Fittest as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
It’s a powerful update on Noble’s book, zooming in on the workings of the biomolecular circuits surrounding the DNA.
Some of the circuits are studied in great detail, looking closely at how they work, and at how they evolve in response to mutations in the DNA. A disadvantageous mutation is eliminated by natural selection. But as well as advantageous mutations it turns out that ‘neutral’ mutations, conferring no immediate advantage, are important and indeed crucial. That resolved one of the dichotomized disputes noted in Wills’ book.
From Michael's list on to get you past selfish-gene theory.
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