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Arrival of the Fittest

By Andreas Wagner

Arrival of the Fittest Natural Sciences

Arrival of the Fittest

Only 1 item left in stock
Description
"Natural selection can preserve innovations, but it cannot create them. Nature's many innovations—some uncannily perfect—call for natural principles that accelerate life's ability to innovate.” Darwin's theory of natural selection explains how useful adaptations are preserved over time. But the biggest mystery about evolution eluded him. As genetics pioneer Hugo de Vries put it, "natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest.” Can random mutations over a mere 3.8 billion years really be responsible for wings, eyeballs, knees, camouflage, lactose digestion, photosynthesis, and the rest of nature's creative marvels? And if the answer is no, what is the mechanism that explains evolution's speed and efficiency? In Arrival of the Fittest, renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner draws on over fifteen years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but 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 and thrives within six degrees of the North Pole, in waters that regularly fall below 0 degrees. At that temperature, the internal fluids of most organisms turn into ice crystals. And yet, the arctic cod survives by producing proteins that lower the freezing temperature of its body fluids, much like antifreeze does for a car's engine coolant. The invention of those proteins is an archetypal example of nature's enormous powers of creativity. Meticulously researched, carefully argued, evocatively written, 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.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Number of Pages:
306
Release Date:
2015-10-06
Publication Date:
2015-10-06
Publisher:
Penguin Publishing Group
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1617230219
ISBN13:
9781617230219
Weight:
384 g
Height:
140 cm
Width:
214 cm
Thickness:
17 cm
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Very good
Almost no signs of wear. Book pages have no markings, accessories are intact and all other media are in good condition.
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