Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis: Darwin’s Legacy Redesigned

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Author
Introduction
1 Darwin’s Millennium Theory and Bateson’s Counter Model
1.1 Charles Darwin’s Theory and Its Significance
1.1.1 At Least Three Theories in One
1.1.2 The Relationship of All Life
1.1.3 Darwin’s Openness as a Scientist
1.1.4 Alfred Russel Wallace: The Co-Discoverer
1.1.5 Evolution Is a Fact
1.2 William Bateson’s Counter Model
1.2.1 Discontinuous Variation
1.2.2 A Hundred Years of Dispute
1.3 The Time after Darwin
1.3.1 August Weismann: A Stubborn Doctrine
1.3.2 How Are Genes Defined? Where Are They Located?
1.4 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading and Clicking
2 The Modern Synthesis: The Standard Model of Evolution
2.1 Emergence and Key Statements
2.1.1 Thomas Hunt Morgan and Thousands of Flies
2.1.2 Statisticians, Zoologists, and Others at the Same Table
2.1.3 Dobzhansky and Mayr: The Practitioners
2.1.4 Role of Dinosaurs and Plants in the Modern Synthesis
2.2 Variation–Selection–Adaptation: The Practice
2.2.1 An Ingenious Experiment Confirms the Modern Synthesis
2.2.2 Guppies with and without an Enemy
2.2.3 Perfect, Less Perfect, or No Adaptation
2.3 Further Findings Up to 1980
2.3.1 Punctualism
2.3.2 More Criticism of Adaptationism
2.3.3 New Worlds: Multilevel Selection and Sociobiology
2.3.4 The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution
2.3.5 Molecular Study of Lineages
2.3.6 Criticisms Remaining of the Modern Synthesis after 1980
2.4 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading and Clicking
3 Evo-Devo—The Best of Both Worlds
3.1 Conrad Hal Waddington—Epigeneticist and Forefather of Evo-Devo
3.1.1 Veins in Fly Wings—An Attempt at a Proof
3.1.2 Buffers and Canalization in Development
3.1.3 Genetically Assimilated
3.1.4 Waddington Was Looking Forward
3.2 Evo-Devo—History and Early Priorities
3.2.1 Embryo Was Already on the Radar in the 19th century
3.2.2 The Embryo Does Not Fit into the Picture of the Modern Synthesis
3.2.3 Developmental Genes—The Embryo Is Rediscovered
3.2.4 Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis—How a New Research Discipline Emerged
3.3 Gene Regulatory Networks
3.3.1 Genetic Toolkit
3.3.2 The Arrival of the Fittest
3.4 Systemic-Interdisciplinary View—A Research Discipline Acquires Order
3.5 Facilitated Variation—The Perspective of Cells
3.5.1 Preserved for Hundreds of Millions of Years
3.5.2 And Yet Change Is Possible
3.5.3 The Exploratory Behavior of Cells
3.5.4 Weak Regulatory Couplings–Cells in Loose Conversation
3.5.5 Compartmentation–The Modular Solution
3.5.6 A Theory with New Informational Content
3.6 Inheritance Is Much More than Mendel and Genes: Inclusive Inheritance
3.6.1 Genetic Mutation Does Not Always Occur by Chance
3.6.2 Epigenetic Inheritance–A Widely Discussed Topic in Scientific Literature and Media
3.6.3 Epigenetic Inheritance by Learning from the Ancestors
3.6.4 Decoupling of Evolution from Biology
3.7 The Music of Life
3.7.1 Questionable Determinacy
3.7.2 The Genetic Program Is an Illusion
3.7.3 We Inherit Cellular Machinery from Our Mother
3.7.4 Against Reductionism?
3.7.5 Biological Function from a System Perspective
3.8 Phenotype Plasticity and Genetic Assimilation: Genes Are Followers
3.8.1 The Environment in a New Role
3.8.2 Developmental Plasticity
3.8.3 Concrete Plasticity—A Goat on Two Legs and Tunnel-Digging Beetles
3.8.4 Genetic Accommodation
3.8.5 Environmental Influences Or Mutations—Which Is More Likely?
3.8.6 Heat Shock Proteins Buffer Mutations in Drosophila, Corals, and Darwin’s Finches
3.8.7 Molecular Mechanisms
3.9 Innovations in Evolution
3.9.1 What Do We Mean by “New” in Evolution?
3.9.2 Conditions of Innovation Initiation
3.9.3 Conditions of innovation Realization
3.9.4 Genetic Integration of Innovations
3.10 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading and Clicking
4 Selected Evo-Devo Research Results
4.1 Evolution of Beak Shape in Darwin’s Finches
4.2 Experiment 1: Fish Can Learn to Walk
4.3 Cichlids with Thick Lips and Large Bumps
4.4 Experiment 2: Butterflies with Eyes on Their Wings
4.5 Experiment 3: Genetic Assimilation in Tobacco Hornworm
4.6 The Almost Nonconstructable Turtle Shell
4.7 How Many Legs Do Millipedes Have?
4.8 Supernumerary Digits
4.8.1 The Uniqueness of the Human Hand in the Animal Kingdom
4.8.2 Why Is Five the Default Number of Fingers?
4.8.3 The Ancient History of Polydactyly
4.8.4 Polydactyly and Genetics—Only Half the Story
4.8.5 Hemingway’s Cats
4.8.6 Mysterious Numbers of Toes
4.8.7 Computer Modeling of Polydactyly
4.8.8 How Toe Numbers Challenge Evolutionary Theory?
4.9 Summary and Outlook
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading and Clicking
5 The Niche Construction Theory
5.1 An Evolutionary Mechanism of Its Own
5.2 Developmental Niche Construction—Castles and Palaces for the Descendants
5.3 Niche Constructions of the Human Being
5.4 Is There a Fault Line in the Modern Synthesis?
5.5 What Constitutes a New Theory?
5.6 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading and Clicking
6 Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
6.1 Emergence of the EES Project
6.2 Objectives of the EES Project
6.3 New Predictions about Evolution
6.4 Brief Description of the Individual Research Projects
6.5 A Project beyond EES: Instances of Agency in Living Systems
6.6 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading
7 Theories on the Evolution of Thinking
7.1 Darwin’s View of Thinking
7.2 Theory of the Social Brain
7.3 Tomasello’s Natural History of Thinking
7.4 Consciousness—A Questionable Scientific Object
7.5 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading
8 The Evolution of Humankind in Our (NON) Biological Future
8.1 Humankind Takes Control of Its Own Evolution
8.1.1 Synthetic Biology and Artificial Life
8.1.2 Genome Editing—Interventions in the Germ Line
8.1.3 Nanobot Technologies
8.1.4 Slowing Aging and Immortality
8.1.5 Human–Machine Combinations
8.1.6 The Future of Genetic Engineering and Transformation of Life
8.2 Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism in Evolution
8.2.1 AI and Humanoid Robots
8.2.2 Superintelligence—The Last Invention of Mankind?
8.2.3 Intelligence Explosion and Singularity
8.3 The Theory of Evolution in the Technosphere
8.4 Summary
References
Tips and Resources for Further Reading
9 More Than One Theory of Evolution–A Pluralistic Approach
9.1 From Old to New Shores—Obstacles and Opportunities
9.2 Evolution from Two Different Perspectives
9.3 Summary and Outlook—For a Theoretical Pluralism
References
10 The Players of the New Thinking in Evolutionary Theory
Glossary
Index