Year: 2022

SO ENDS this peek at falling leaves. The numerous variables that plants assess each autumn all go into the calculation of which date to start and to end the process of dropping the leaves. Each plant does its own mathematics. But what really is impressive is that while the dates of start and end vary each year, the species synchronization in that large habitat does not, and the autumnal march is invariably orderly. Not a single research paper can touch this hugely complex subject. View in LinkedIn

TRANSITIONS. "Twenty years ago, Maynard Smith and Szathmáry revolutionized our understanding of life on earth by showing how the key steps in the evolution of life on earth had been driven by a small number of “major evolutionary transitions.” http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

LIFE AS A SERIES OF COLLABORATIONS. "In each transition, a group of individuals that could previously replicate independently cooperate to form a new, more complex life form. For example, genes cooperated to form genomes, archaea and eubacteria formed eukaryotic cells, and cells cooperated to form multicellular organisms." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

REPETITIVE CHALLENGE. "The major transitions approach provides a conceptual framework that facilitates comparison across pivotal moments in the history of life. It suggests that the same problem arises at each transition: How are the potentially selfish interests of individuals overcome to form mutually dependent cooperative groups?" http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

ALL ABOUT INFORMATION. "A major evolutionary transition has been most broadly defined as a change in the way that heritable information is stored and transmitted." Think this over. http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

COOPERATIVE STRATA. "We break down major transitions into two steps: the formation of a cooperative group and the transformation of that group into an integrated entity." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

TRANSITION DRIVERS. "We show how these steps require cooperation, division of labor, communication, mutual dependence, and negligible within-group conflict. We find that certain ecological conditions and the ways in which groups form have played recurrent roles in driving multiple transitions." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

MINOR FACTORS. "In contrast, we find that other factors have played relatively minor roles at many key points, such as within-group kin discrimination and mechanisms to actively repress competition." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

UNIFIED STORY. "More generally, by identifying the small number of factors that have driven major transitions, we provide a simpler and more unified description of how life on earth has evolved." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10112.full View in LinkedIn

INCREASING COMPLEXITY. "The history of life is punctuated by evolutionary transitions which engender emergence of new levels of biological organization that involves selection acting at increasingly complex ensembles of biological entities." https://lnkd.in/dwWBEqU View in LinkedIn