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Andreas Wagner

Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems (Princeton Studies in Complexity, 24) 1st Edition

by Andreas Wagner (Author)

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Part of: Princeton Studies in Complexity (16 books)

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All living things are remarkably complex, yet their DNA is unstable, undergoing countless random mutations over generations. Despite this instability, most animals do not grow two heads or die, plants continue to thrive, and bacteria continue to divide. Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems tackles this perplexing paradox. The book explores why genetic changes do not cause organisms to fail catastrophically and how evolution shapes organisms' robustness. Andreas Wagner looks at this problem from the ground up, starting with the alphabet of DNA, the genetic code, RNA, and protein molecules, moving on to genetic networks and embryonic development, and working his way up to whole organisms. He then develops an evolutionary explanation for robustness.

Wagner shows how evolution by natural selection preferentially finds and favors robust solutions to the problems organisms face in surviving and reproducing. Such robustness, he argues, also enhances the potential for future evolutionary innovation. Wagner also argues that robustness has less to do with organisms having plenty of spare parts (the redundancy theory that has been popular) and more to do with the reality that mutations can change organisms in ways that do not substantively affect their fitness.

Unparalleled in its field, this book offers the most detailed analysis available of all facets of robustness within organisms. It will appeal not only to biologists but also to engineers interested in the design of robust systems and to social scientists concerned with robustness in human communities and populations.

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"Wagner's treatise is more than good biology; it is also very interesting biology. The picture is painted by talented hands. . . . If I have a favorite aspect of the book, it is the meticulous yet insightful analysis of neutral spaces and their relevance for the main themes of the book."---Eörs Szathmáry, Nature

"Wagner contributes significantly to the emerging view that natural selection is just one, and maybe not even the most fundamental, source of biological order. His two-page epilogue throws out seven open questions for systems biologists and neo-Darwinians to consider; hopefully they will do so."---Greg Gibson, Science

"This book is invaluable for everybody interested in robustness. . . . I predict that for many years to come, Wagner's book will be the bibliographic reference work of choice for research on robustness."---Claus O. Wilke, BioScience

"Unparalleled in its field, this book offers the most detailed analysis available of all facets of robustness within organisms. It will appeal not only to biologists but also to engineers interested in the design of robust systems and to social scientists concerned with robustness in human communities and populations." ― Ethnology, Ecology, and Evolution

Review

"This is a timely book that should appeal to biologists, engineers, and applied mathematicians."―David C. Krakauer, Santa Fe Institute

"This is a major contribution, addressing what are perhaps the central questions in the subject of complex adaptive systems: What makes systems robust and how does selection at different levels of organization act to shape robustness? It is a well-written, well-organized, provocative piece of scholarly work that will be widely read and debated."―Simon Levin, Princeton University

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; 1st edition (July 22, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691134049
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691134048
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.87 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,552,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #402 in Developmental Biology (Books)
- #1,255 in Microbiology (Books)
- #2,152 in Genetics (Books)

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Christopher N

Important book for anyone interested in systems thinking in biology

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2009

This is a well written monograph on two fundamental but often contradictory properties of living entities: evolvability and robustness. The text gives multiple examples in which a system is robust (sort of dynamically stable) in one respect while retains a window of opportunities for change in another respect. This book is potentially interesting for traditional scientists ("reductionists" by habit) as well as holistically motivated modern biologists. I believe it is so well written and organized that it could become a must read for anyone interested in systems biology, whatever the latter term means today.
Perhaps a word of caution should be issued here for the readers who intend to learn about systems thinking regarding living matter. The assumption of very specific characteristics that a system is robust to is oversimplification of real problems in life sciences. So is a choice of specific properties according to which the system could evolve. The real living entities are complex in a sense that a very enumeration of their characteristics is a hopeless problem in itself. In contrast, the chemical models of these entities can be described in terms of selected (enumerated) characteristics. From this point of view this book is not really about living systems but about their very specific chemical models. Having said that, I hasten to state again that the book is a great reading and should be read.

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