"The Evolutionists" and the "Sciences of Comp

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

Hey, has anyone ever read a book called "The Evolutionists" by Richard Morris? It's fantanstic read, and it goes and does a real good job of covering the basic controversies within the general field of evolutionary biology. One of the major concepts it hits on is the notion of Sciences of Complexity and the achievements and contributions of Dr. Kaufman. It supposedly coincides with the work done by Gould and Eldgridge

One of the major themes is that genes come together in complex systems and exhibit "emergent properties." As an example of the complex functions and characteristics exhibited, he mentions the nature of an ant collective or a bee hive. Each individual ant, the book says, is relatively mindless, yet when they come together in the hive, they exhibit fantastic coordination and feats that one would never expect by looking at the anatomy and nature of the individual ant. Similarly the individual gene units have their own characteristics, but when they come into contact with one another, they exhibit, as a whole, properties that are not foretold by simply reducing to the individual characteristics of the genes.

Has anyone any experience with this field of science? Apparently, it is utilizes a significant quantity of computer modeling and has contributed a lot to the understanding of how genes interact as sets of information within the confines of Natural Selection, but more importantly, they say it goes a long way to helping scientists comprehend the origin of life via abiogenesis. It is supposed to be an additonal element to the overall mechanism of evolution.

I am not sure where you might find the book. I am sure they got it at local bookstores, but I got it when I was in New York at the Natural History Museum. Couldn't put it down yet, although I don't really understand every concept talked about under the Kaufman/Gould subchapter. Supposedly the concept builds off of Gould's notion that entire species and higher level "species sorting" is important in the evolutionary process. Kaufman takes this but applies the whole-package idea to genes.