Enhancing Evolution

In this new edition of Evolution of the Social Contract, Brian Skyrms uses evolutionary game theory to analyze the genesis of social contracts and investigates social phenomena including justice, communication, altruism, and bargaining. Featuring new material on evolution and information transfer, and including recent developments in game theory and evolution literature, his book introduces and applies appropriate concepts of equilibrium and evolutionary dynamics, showing how key issues can be modeled as games and considering the ways in which evolution sometimes supports, and sometimes does not support, rational choice. He discusses topics including how bargaining with neighbors promotes sharing of resources, the diversity of behavior in ultimatum bargaining in small societies, the Prisoner's Dilemma, and an investigation into signaling games and the spontaneous emergence of meaningful communication. His book will be of great interest to readers in philosophy of science, social scienc

We all have our off days. Why should Evolution be any different? Maybe Evolution got carried away with an idea that was just a little too crazy—like having the Regal Horned Lizard defend itself by sho

All phases of stellar evolution are influenced by the presence of magnetic fields in the star's interior and close environment. IAU Symposium 302 gives an overview of the emerging field of stellar magnetism. The last few years have seen the dawn of a new era in this research domain, with the advent of powerful tools strengthening both observational and modelling approaches, rapidly changing our view of the role stellar magnetism plays throughout stellar evolution. The topics covered span all phases of evolution, from the formation of stars and their early accreting years, through main sequence evolution for both low and high mass stars, and also the final stages of stellar evolution. This volume features the most recent advances achieved by major observatories (ground-based and space-borne) and through massively-parallel 3D numerical simulations, benefiting astronomers interested in the latest observational and theoretical developments in this exciting and growing field.

This timely book examines the complete HSPA evolution, and will be the ultimate long-term reference for HSPA evolution. Headed by the successful editing team of Holma, Toskala, and Tapia, industry exp

Jacques Ninio addresses molecular biology from the evolutionist's viewpoint, reviewing major research areas such as acquisitive evolution; the comparison of protein structures in three dimensions; the

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, PETS 2014, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in July 2014. The 16 full papers pr

This volume explores from multiple perspectives the subtle and interesting relationship between the theory of rational choice and Darwinian evolution. In rational choice theory, agents are assumed to make choices that maximize their utility; in evolution, natural selection 'chooses' between phenotypes according to the criterion of fitness maximization. So there is a parallel between utility in rational choice theory and fitness in Darwinian theory. This conceptual link between fitness and utility is mirrored by the interesting parallels between formal models of evolution and rational choice. The essays in this volume, by leading philosophers, economists, biologists and psychologists, explore the connection between evolution and rational choice in a number of different contexts, including choice under uncertainty, strategic decision making and pro-social behaviour. They will be of interest to students and researchers in philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, economics and psycholo

Evolution: Components and Mechanisms introduces the many recent discoveries and insights that have added to the discipline of organic evolution, and combines them with the key topics needed to gain a

This volume describes features of autonomy and integrates them into the recent discussion of factors in evolution. In recent years ideas about major transitions in evolution are undergoing a revolutio

Bringing together conceptual obstacles and core concepts of evolutionary theory, this book presents evolution as straightforward and intuitive.

Why Evolution Matters examines the concept of evolution in relation to Judaism, showing that far from something to be avoided within the religion, evolutionary thought deepens an understanding of clas

Bringing together conceptual obstacles and core concepts of evolutionary theory, this book presents evolution as straightforward and intuitive.

Genetic algorithms are founded upon the principle of evolution, i.e., survival of the fittest. Hence evolution programming techniques, based on genetic algorithms, are applicable to many hard optimiza

Written by an authoritative, internationally renowned author, Dictionary of Human Evolution provides a concise reference guide to commonly used terms in biological anthropology, including recent fossi

Neural Crest Cells: Evolution, Development and Disease summarizes discoveries of historical significance and provides in-depth, current analyses of the evolution of neural crest cells, their contribut

The formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the most important topics in astrophysics. Secular evolution refers to the relatively slow dynamical evolution due to internal processes induced by a galaxy's spiral arms, bars, galactic winds, black holes and dark matter haloes. It plays an important role in the evolution of spiral galaxies with major consequences for galactic bulges, the transfer of angular momentum, and the distribution of a galaxy's constituent stars, gas and dust. This internal evolution is key to understanding cosmological models of galaxy formation and evolution. Based on the twenty-third Winter School of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, this volume presents reviews from nine experts on the observational and theoretical research into secular processes, and what these processes can tell us about the structure and formation of galaxies. The volume provides a grounding for graduate students and researchers working on galactic dynamics and galaxy evoluti

Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of the natural origins and early evolution of this famous plant, highlighting its historic role in the development

For twenty-first-century veterans of the evolution culture wars, Primitive Minds: Evolution and Spiritual Experience in the Victorian Novel, by Anna Neill, makes unlikely bedfellows of two Victorian “

"The Tangled Bank is the first textbook about evolution intended for the general reader. Zimmer takes readers on a fascinating journey into the latest discoveries about evolution. In the Canadian Arct

Evolution and Medicine provides an accessible introduction to the new field of evolutionary medicine. Evolutionary concepts help explain why we remain vulnerable to disease, how pathogens and cancer c

Evolution and Medicine provides an accessible introduction to the new field of evolutionary medicine. Evolutionary concepts help explain why we remain vulnerable to disease, how pathogens and cancer c

This book collects significant lectures from two Galapagos Summits on Evolution, promoting comprehensive research on evolution and ecology and to make the research results available to students and te

The purpose of this book is to present a new mechanistic theory of mutation-driven evolution based on recent advances in genomics and evolutionary developmental biology. The theory asserts, perhaps s

“The Early Evolution of the Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets” presents the main processes participating in the atmospheric evolution of terrestrial planets. A group of experts in the different field

Should alternatives to evolution be taught in American public schools or rejected as an establishment of religion? Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution argues that accurate science education h

At a glance, most species seem adapted to the environment in which they live. Yet species relentlessly evolve, and populations within species evolve in different ways. Evolution, as it turns out, is m

At a glance, most species seem adapted to the environment in which they live. Yet species relentlessly evolve, and populations within species evolve in different ways. Evolution, as it turns out, is m

Extensively rewritten and reorganized, this new edition of Evolution--featuring a new coauthor: Mark Kirkpatrick (The University of Texas at Austin)--offers additional expertise in evolutionary geneti

Evolution, the history of life, encompasses diverse areas of study - from the origin of life and its subsequent historical record to the molecular and populational concepts that explain these events.

An Introduction to the Evolution of Single and Binary Stars provides physicists with an understanding of binary and single star evolution, beginning with a background and introduction of basic astrono

Evolution is the central unifying theme of biology. Yet today, more than a century and a half after Charles Darwin proposed the idea of evolution through natural selection, the topic is often relegate

This volume explains the microscopic physics operating in stars in advanced stages of their evolution and describes with many numerical examples and illustrations how they respond to this microphysics. Models of low and intermediate mass are evolved through the core helium-burning phase, the asymptotic giant branch phase (alternating shell hydrogen and helium burning) and through the final cooling white dwarf phase. A massive model is carried from the core helium-burning phase through core and shell carbon-burning phases. Gravothermal responses to nuclear reaction-induced transformations and energy loss from the surface are described in detail. Written for senior graduate students and researchers who have mastered the principles of stellar evolution, as developed in the first volume of Stellar Evolution Physics, sufficient attention is paid to how numerical solutions are obtained to enable the reader to engage in model construction on a professional level.

This book emerged from a series of lectures on crop evolution at the Faculty of Agriculture of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While many textbooks are available on general evolution, only a few d

Polyploidy – whole-genome duplication (WGD) – is a fundamental driver of biodiversity with significant consequences for genome structure, organization, and evolution. Once considered a speciation pro

Can theories of evolution explain the development of our capacity for moral judgment and the content of morality itself? If bad behavior punished by the criminal law is attributable to physical causes

Evolution equations of hyperbolic or more general p-evolution type form an active field of current research. This volume aims to collect some recent advances in the area in order to allow a quick over

This volume explores from multiple perspectives the subtle and interesting relationship between the theory of rational choice and Darwinian evolution. In rational choice theory, agents are assumed to make choices that maximize their utility; in evolution, natural selection 'chooses' between phenotypes according to the criterion of fitness maximization. So there is a parallel between utility in rational choice theory and fitness in Darwinian theory. This conceptual link between fitness and utility is mirrored by the interesting parallels between formal models of evolution and rational choice. The essays in this volume, by leading philosophers, economists, biologists and psychologists, explore the connection between evolution and rational choice in a number of different contexts, including choice under uncertainty, strategic decision making and pro-social behaviour. They will be of interest to students and researchers in philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, economics and psycholo

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12 th International Symposium on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, PET 2012, held in Vigo, Spain, in July 2012. The 16 full papers presented were ca

What happens to a regular guy who dopes? Surprised to learn that pro athletes aren’t the only ones taking performance-enhancing substances, journalist Andrew Tilin goes in search of the average juicin

Codon-based models of evolution are a relatively new addition to the toolkit of computational biologists, and in recent years remarkable progress has been made in this area. The study of evolution at