Darwinian Approach Research Articles

All You Need to Know About Allometric Scaling: An Integrative Review on the Theoretical Basis, Empirical Evidence, and Application in Human Pharmacology.

Scaling approaches are used to describe or predict clearance for paediatric or obese populations from normal-weight adult values. Theoretical allometry assumes the existence of a universal bodyweight-based scaling relationship. Although theoretical allometry is highly disputed, it is commonly applied in pharmacological data analyses and clinical practice. The aim of the current review is to (1) increase pharmacologists' understanding of theoretical allometry to better understand the (implicit) assumptions and (dis)advantages and (2) highlight important methodological considerations with the application of this methodology. Theoretical allometry originated in an empirical, and later debated, observation by Kleiber of a scaling exponent of 0.75 between basal metabolic rate and body mass of mammals. The mathematical framework of West, Brown, and Enquist provides one possible explanation for this value. To date, multiple key assumptions of this framework have been disputed or disproven, and an increasing body of evidence is emerging against the existence of one universal allometric exponent. The promise of ease and universality of use that comes with theoretical approaches may be the reason they are so strongly sought after and defended. However, ecologists have suggested that the theory should move from a 'Newtonian approach', in which physical explanations are sought for a universal law and variability is of minor importance, to a 'Darwinian approach', in which variability is considered of primary importance for which evolutionary explanations can be found. No scientific support was found for the application of allometry for within-species scaling, so the application of basal metabolic rate-based scaling principles to clearance scaling remains unsubstantiated. Recent insights from physiologically based modelling approaches emphasise the interplay between drugs with different properties and physiological variables that underlie drug clearance, which drives the variability in the allometric scaling exponent in the field of pharmacology. To deal with this variability, drug-specific or patient-specific adaptations to theoretical allometric scaling are proposed, that introduce empiric elements and reduce the universality of the theory. The use of allometric scaling with an exponent of 0.75 may hold empirical merit for paediatric populations, except for the youngest individuals (aged ≤ 5 years). Nevertheless, biological interpretations and extrapolation potential attributed to models based on 0.75 allometric scaling are theoretically unfounded, and merits of the empirical application of this function should, as for all models, always be supported by appropriate model validation procedures. In this respect, it is not the value of the allometric exponent but the description and prediction of individual clearance values and drug concentrations that are of primary interest.

Mate assessment based on physical characteristics: a review and reflection.

Mate choice, and sex differences in romantic behaviours, represented one of the first major applications of evolutionary biology to human behaviour. This paper reviews Darwinian approaches to heterosexual mate assessment based on physical characteristics, placing the literature in its historical context (1871-1979), before turning (predominantly) to psychological research on attractiveness judgements based on physical characteristics. Attractiveness is consistently inferred across multiple modalities, with biological theories explaining why we differentiate certain individuals, on average, from others. Simultaneously, it is a judgement that varies systematically in light of our own traits, environment, and experiences. Over 30 years of research has generated robust effects alongside reasons to be humble in our lack of understanding of the precise physiological mechanisms involved in mate assessment. This review concludes with three questions to focus attention in further research, and proposes that our romantic preferences still provide a critical window into the evolution of human sexuality.

BETWEEN SUMNER AND GALTON: A FURTHER LOOK AT ALBERT GALLOWAY KELLER’S SOCIOLOGY

Largely forgotten today, Albert Galloway Keller was one of the foremost sociologists of his time. A brilliant scholar and a staunch disciple of William Graham Sumner, Keller spent his entire academic career at Yale, first as a student and then as professor of the Science of Society, the chair formerly held by his mentor. The main coordinates of Keller’s sociology are to be found in his major work, Societal Evolution (1915), where he sought to apply Charles Darwin’s mechanism of variation, selection, and transmission to Sumner’s general scheme. Although Keller gave priority to social variables, his evolutionary sociology retained many elements of the typically Progressive Era preoccupations with heredity and the biological quality of individuals. The aim of this paper is to examine in some detail Keller’s views on eugenics and related issues, and to assess whether and to what extent these biologically deterministic elements played a role in his Darwinian approach to institutional change.

Simulation of Closed Timelike Curves in a Darwinian Approach to Quantum Mechanics

Closed timelike curves (CTCs) are non-intuitive theoretical solutions of general relativity field equations. The main paradox associated with the physical existence of CTCs, the so-called grandfather paradox, can be satisfactorily solved by a quantum model named Deutsch-CTC. An outstanding theoretical result that has been demonstrated in the Deutsch-CTC model is the computational equivalence of a classical and a quantum computer in the presence of a CTC. In this article, in order to explore the possible implications for the foundations of quantum mechanics of that equivalence, a fundamental particle is modelled as a classical-like system supplemented with an information space in which a randomizer and a classical Turing machine are stored. The particle could then generate quantum behavior in real time in case it was controlled by a classical algorithm coding the rules of quantum mechanics and, in addition, a logical circuit simulating a CTC was present on its information space. The conditions that, through the action of evolution under natural selection, might produce a population of such particles with both elements on their information spaces from initial sheer random behavior are analyzed.

Turing’s Biological Philosophy: Morphogenesis, Mechanisms and Organicism

Alan M. Turing’s last published work and some posthumously published manuscripts were dedicated to the development of his theory of organic pattern formation. In “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis” (1952), he provided an elaborated mathematical formulation of the theory of the origins of biological form that had been first proposed by Sir D’Arcy Wendworth Thompson in On Growth and Form (1917/1942). While arguably his most mathematically detailed and his systematically most ambitious effort, Turing’s morphogenetical writings also form the most thematically self-contained and least philosophically explored part of his work. We dedicate our inquiry to the reasons and the implications of Turing’s choice of biological topic and viewpoint. We will probe for possible factors in Turing’s choice that go beyond availability and acquaintance with On Growth and Form. On these grounds, we will explore how and to what extent his theory of morphogenesis actually ties in with his concept of mechanistic computation. Notably, Thompson’s pioneering work in biological ‘structuralism’ was organicist in outlook and explicitly critical of the Darwinian approaches that were popular with Turing’s cyberneticist contemporaries—and partly used by Turing himself in his proto-connectionist models of learning. Resolving this apparent dichotomy, we demonstrate how Turing’s quest for mechanistic explanations of how organisation emerges in nature leaves room for a non-mechanist view of nature.

КОГДА ВО ФРАНЦУЗСКОМ ТЕКСТЕ «ВОЗМОЖНОЕ» ВОЗМОЖНО

The article presents observations on the frequency of occurrence of lexical units in the immediate left position of the adjective ‘possible’ in the corpus of original French literary, scientific and scholarly texts from the 17th to the 21st century. These frequencies indicate both standard and innovative “expressive needs” and the relevance of the concept “possible” within the framework of the average French discourse. The concept of expressive needs lies on the border between language as a system of linguistic expressions and the use of these expressions in speech in a given culture. This concept fits into the Darwinian approach to the evolution of species: a hare with short hind legs will not be able to survive when agile predators appear, from whom the hare will have to escape. What makes Francophones use the word ‘possible’ in some contexts and pay less statistical attention to others? The material presented here suggests several possible answers to this question in cognitive terms. Thus, the predicates of the class “to be possible” stating rather than assuming the possibility, are much more frequent than the belief predicates. Classes of attributes, as well as nouns denoting possible objects, logical connectives and auxiliaries demonstrate the tendency manifested in French discourses to speak about “desired possibilities” rather than about “absolute possibilities”.

Ancient Voices, Contemporary Practice, and Human Musicality

Abstract Debate continues regarding the purpose and practice of music in relation to participation, cultural origin, and education internationally. A Darwinian approach that sees musical vocalization as the adaptive bridge between animal communication and human language remains hotly disputed where such a model does not suit the prevailing political or social agenda. The two books under review present contrasting viewpoints and evidence, while their concurrent publication illustrates the rich potential for developments in this field. Friedmann’s edited book presents separate chapters by sixteen independent authors cover­ing a range of specialisms and topics. Wood’s monograph is, by contrast, an encyclopaedic exploration of the earliest writings on musical theory from China, Greece, and India and their influence on the world’s music over the last 4,000 years. Read both separately and comparatively, these two publications offer a valuable contribution to our understanding of the phenomenon of music and its practice today.

The Origins of Consciousness or the War of the Five Dimensions

The goal of this article is to break down the dimensions of consciousness, attempt to reverse engineer their evolutionary function, and make sense of the origins of consciousness by breaking off those dimensions that are more likely to have arisen later. A Darwinian approach will allow us to revise the philosopher’s concept of consciousness away from a single “thing,” an all-or-nothing quality, and towards a concept of phenomenological complexity that arose out of simple valenced states. Finally, I will offer support for an evaluation-first view of consciousness by drawing on recent work in experimental philosophy of mind.

Biosemiotic Foundations of a Darwinian Approach to Cultural Evolution

Abstract The present paper reflects on the state of evolutionary approaches to culture, which are mostly seen as essential for defining ‘cultural science’. They manifest two flaws that still block a productive synthesis between the sciences and the humanities. First, they employ an inflationary generic concept of culture that covers all information that is stored and transmitted non-genetically; this differs from the narrower uses in the humanities that focus on the diversity of cultures and their interactions. Second, they approach culture as observable and measurable ‘traits’, hence do not develop a precise concept of cultural meaning, which must take account of the fundamental property of reflexivity in human cognition. I propose an alternative view that is grounded in biosemiotic analysis of the brain, and that I relate to Robert Aunger’s conception of ‘neuromemetics’. I already contributed this idea to the first-stage debates about cultural science after 2008. The current paper adds much analytical detail on the systemic nature of cultural semiosis operating in a selectionist logic of brain dynamics, as theorized early on by F. A. von Hayek. I suggest that the bridge between the sciences and the humanities must be built via new disciplines in the neurosciences, such as cultural neuroscience, which avoids both biological reductionism and a mere analogical deployment of evolutionary diffusion analysis in the new field of cultural science. Semiotics is the overarching paradigm of integration, in the distinct versions of both biosemiotics and physiosemiotics. I suggest combining Peircean biosemiotics with Lotman’s concept of the ‘semiosphere’. In this context, culture is defined by reflexive operations that occur over internal boundaries of the semiosphere that are constitutive of the identity of the agent as the physical locus of neuromeme evolution.

Darwin's Orchids

AbstractIs there a queer Darwin? It is often assumed that Darwinian biology is an ally of conservative approaches to sexuality and gender. The Christian legal framework known as natural law philosophy, for instance, reads Darwin as a champion of heterosexual coupling, proving the biological imperative of straight sex. Some feminist readings of Darwin (such as that of Elizabeth Grosz) find in Darwin a confirmation of the necessity of sexual difference organized around masculinity and femininity—an approach Myra Hird has called the “ontology of heterosexuality.” But these interpretations are incorrect. Schaefer argues that far from being an advocate for the ontology of heterosexuality, Darwin provides tools to demolish it. Turning to his research on barnacles and orchids and his speculation on the sources of organic variation, this essay highlights the irreducible importance of diversity and change for Darwin's framework. The ongoing ferment of variation that is the guideline of all life on earth extends not only to the morphology of sex organs but to desire itself. Darwin shows that the ontology of heterosexuality is an arbitrary snapshot, a single moment in the fluid trajectory of life, rather than a law that can be arbitrarily cast over the whole arc. In this, Darwin supports Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's first axiom for queer theory: “People are different from each other.” The essay concludes by connecting a Darwinian approach to sex with José Esteban Muñoz's call for a queer ecstasy that anticipates the futurity of desire.

Darwinian Approaches for Cancer Treatment: Benefits of Mathematical Modeling.

Simple SummaryMany cancers develop resistance and become unresponsive to traditional treatment strategies. In this review we highlight how mathematical models can aid the implementation of alternative treatment strategies that take into account the ecology and evolution of tumors in order to circumvent the emergence of resistance. We review some of the mathematical models that can be used and that have contributed to showing that Darwinian approaches for cancer treatment, like adaptive therapy, are promising anti-cancer treatment strategies.One of the major problems of traditional anti-cancer treatments is that they lead to the emergence of treatment-resistant cells, which results in treatment failure. To avoid or delay this phenomenon, it is relevant to take into account the eco-evolutionary dynamics of tumors. Designing evolution-based treatment strategies may help overcoming the problem of drug resistance. In particular, a promising candidate is adaptive therapy, a containment strategy which adjusts treatment cycles to the evolution of the tumors in order to keep the population of treatment-resistant cells under control. Mathematical modeling is a crucial tool to understand the dynamics of cancer in response to treatments, and to make predictions about the outcomes of these treatments. In this review, we highlight the benefits of in silico modeling to design adaptive therapy strategies, and to assess whether they could effectively improve treatment outcomes. Specifically, we review how two main types of models (i.e., mathematical models based on Lotka–Volterra equations and agent-based models) have been used to model tumor dynamics in response to adaptive therapy. We give examples of the advances they permitted in the field of adaptive therapy and discuss about how these models can be integrated in experimental approaches and clinical trial design.

On conceptualizing grammatical change in a Darwinian framework

Abstract Approaching language change within a Darwinian framework constitutes a long-standing tradition within the literature of diachronic linguistics. However, many publications remain vague, omitting conceptual details or missing necessary terminology. For example, phylogenetic trees of language families are regularly compared to biological speciation, but definitions on mechanisms of inheritance, i.e. how linguistic information is transferred between individuals and cohorts, or on the linguistic correlates to genotype and phenotype are often missing or lacking. In light of this, Haider’s attempts to develop this approach into a theoretically more precise position, closely mirroring principles of Darwinian natural selection in the dimension of diachronic grammatical change, but contrasting this with non-Darwinian lexical change. He draws a comparison to viral replication, essentially positing that grammar variants act as mental viruses, competing for replication in new hosts, i.e. children during critical periods of language acquisition. Haider proposes that in light of this competition for replication, the unconscious fixation of an individual’s grammar leads to diachronic grammatical change largely mirroring Darwinian natural selection. Despite the intuitive appeal this mode of reasoning may feature, the following response paper identifies and discusses a suit of shortcomings to this conceptualization. Some problems arise from underspecified theoretical notions, others due to the incomplete or inaccurate adoption of biological principles, and yet more through a partial incompatibility with empirical data. These criticisms do not amount to a dismissal of the Darwinian framework Haider is following, but to a rejection of Haider’s current position. Albeit it remains unclear if a truly Darwinian approach to language change can be reached, suggestions on how Haider’s theoretical notions could be further developed are made and pertinent efforts may ultimately lead to a productive theory.

Novelty and imitation within the brain: a Darwinian neurodynamic approach to combinatorial problems

Efficient search in vast combinatorial spaces, such as those of possible action sequences, linguistic structures, or causal explanations, is an essential component of intelligence. Is there any computational domain that is flexible enough to provide solutions to such diverse problems and can be robustly implemented over neural substrates? Based on previous accounts, we propose that a Darwinian process, operating over sequential cycles of imperfect copying and selection of neural informational patterns, is a promising candidate. Here we implement imperfect information copying through one reservoir computing unit teaching another. Teacher and learner roles are assigned dynamically based on evaluation of the readout signal. We demonstrate that the emerging Darwinian population of readout activity patterns is capable of maintaining and continually improving upon existing solutions over rugged combinatorial reward landscapes. We also demonstrate the existence of a sharp error threshold, a neural noise level beyond which information accumulated by an evolutionary process cannot be maintained. We introduce a novel analysis method, neural phylogenies, that displays the unfolding of the neural-evolutionary process.

A Darwinian approach to the study of sports, games, and athletics.

A Darwinian approach to the study of sports, games, and athletics.

Darwinian Approach and Mutations: Bjarke Ingels (BIG) and Analysis of His Stepped Pixels Buildings

Purpose Ingels, who was influenced by Darwin, designs new mutants by developing prototypes. This study, it is aimed to scrutinize the public space alternatives proposed for the 21st-century city through the comparative analysis of the stepped pixelated buildings, one of the mutants of the architect. It has been how much questioned the stages, which offer a public space proposal, in the stepped pixelated buildings allow urban dialogue.Design/Methodology/Approach While Ingels' design philosophy constitutes the conceptual approach of the study, this study is prepared by using the architect's discourse, interviews, videos, digital texts, and literature studies. In this context, the repetitive examples that the architect defines as mutation and adaptation are classified. The stepped pixels in this classification are the main subject of this study. Ingels' pixelated buildings; Suitable human scale, the language of mass and form, relationship between human and space, the suggestion of space for experience, public space concept, dialogue spaces were discussed based on architect's approach.Findings Ingels went in the way of dividing the object through pixels when designing macro-scale structures. Thus, he made the big picture more understandable and perceptible. He tried to achieve the human scale with the gradual pixels rising from the ground level. In this way, Ingels' pixels buildings have transformed themselves into an experiential part of urban.Research Limitations/ImplicationsThese parameters were evaluated under four dwelling buildings of the stepped pixel in the case study (Lego Tower, Mountain Dwellings, King Street West, 79 & Park).Social/Practical ImplicationsAt this research, it is foreseen that the new living space suggestions consisting of stepped pixels designed by Ingels will undergo different mutations and come up with new urban alternatives in the future.Originality/Value Pixelated dwellings, one of the mutations of Ingels, who constantly draws attention to the problem of not integrating the buildings into the city in today's architecture, have been analysed and evaluated in the context of urban alliterations. In this way, research, a first in its field is important in terms of opening to discuss the alternative urban living spaces proposed by the architect for 21st-century architecture in the contemporary architectural environment.

Impact assessment of climate change and human activities on streamflow signatures in the Yellow River Basin using the Budyko hypothesis and derived differential equation

Streamflow has been complexly altered by climate change and human activities in major rivers worldwide. The traditional Darwinian approach for impact assessment of climate change and human activities mainly focuses on variations in annual streamflow, but ignores other critical streamflow characteristics (e.g., high- and low-flow signatures). In our study, seven streamflow metrics were adopted to characterize the main streamflow signatures including average, low and high flows, and the Budyko-based method was extended based on the derived differential equation of streamflow signature change to separate individual impacts of climate change and human activities. The Yellow River Basin, China was selected as the study area because of its high intensity of human activities, and daily runoff observation series from 1960 to 2015 at four stations from the source region to the downstream region were used for the assessment. The assessment results were also compared with those estimated by the hydrological modeling method for validation. The results show that all streamflow signatures at the four stations have evidently declined after the 1980s, particularly for high-flow magnitudes. Both climate change and human activities decrease most of streamflow signatures, and human activities play major roles, which are gradually enhanced from the source region to the downstream region. The contributions of human activities are from −66.85% to −56.68% in the Tangnaihai controlled catchment, from −96.93% to −54.59% in the Qingtongxia controlled catchment, from −83.61% to −57.49% in the Longmen controlled catchment, and from −91.02% to −57.29% in the Lijin controlled catchment. The most impacted signature is the average flow in the non-flood season, followed by the annual maximum flow. The estimated contributions of climate change and human activities match well with those estimated by the hydrological modeling method, particularly for the high- and average-flow signatures with contribution deviations less than 10%. However, the estimated contributions to the low-flow signatures are quite different likely due to large uncertainty of low flow estimation. This study is expected to provide insights into the streamflow variations basin wide and provide scientific foundations for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, China.

A Darwinian Approach to Postmodern Critical Theory: Or, How Did Bad Ideas Colonise the Academy?

This article proposes a Darwinian approach to examine the persistence and resilience of a peculiar set of misbeliefs that have flourished in intellectual circles over the last several decades. These misbeliefs, such as the prevailing antirational explanatory models within postmodern critical theory (PMCT), might be expected to perish under the weight of critical scrutiny; that is, selection pressures would tend to weed them out in a highly competitive and rigorous “marketplace of ideas” such as the academy. Given the flourishing of PMCT and its attendant communities of practice, political economies, tribalism and social signalling, it is suggested here that it should be approached in a new way: as a significant socio-cultural cluster of misbeliefs worthy of explanation with tools honed via evolutionary science. For example, the prominence of religious-like performativity and self-validating arguments associated with PMCT makes it suitable for study from perspectives such as memetics, evolutionary psychology (EP) and signalling theory, and Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). With these approaches, a hypothesis-driven research agenda could be developed to examine the deeply-rooted cognitive basis and adaptive socio-cultural drivers behind the spread of PMCT. It is proposed that formal and systematic programmes be established to research the phenomenon, and that – just as with the study of religion – we move beyond the now long-established emphasis on intellectual critique and instead establish a broad programme in the Evolutionary Studies of Postmodernism (ESPM).

Perspectivas darwinistas sobre la mente y la conducta humanas: alcances, limitaciones e implicancias educativas

In this work I characterize Darwinian approaches to human behavior and mind, especially evolutionary psychology, and analyze the main criticisms that these approaches have received. To this end I resort to Jean Marie Schaeffer’s criticism of the thesis of human exceptionality and the semantic perspective of scientific theories of Ronald Giere. I conclude that the main criticisms (reductionism, determinism and ideological bias) are not applicable to evolutionary psychology as a research program. I also conclude that it cannot be held a priori that the Darwinian approach is not applicable to the human mind and behavior. Finally, I discuss some educational implications of these debates.

Offline: It's time to prepare your anti-CV

Editors are merchants of failure. We trade in rejection. But no scientist cites rejected papers on their resumé. Perhaps they should. The anti-CV reveals opportunities won and lost, choices seized and refused. “Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.” That was Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Or try William Whewell (1794–1866): “Every failure is a step to success.” Don't be fooled by these efforts to turn failure into triumphant success. Failure is painful. It hurts. It marginalises and excludes. It's dark. And it can feel shameful. At last week's courageous Festival of Failure, led by Colby Benari, Felipe Fouto, and the Academic Careers Office of University College London, failure was warmly embraced. The goal was to destigmatise. And the message: we can all learn from failure. Failure is a great teacher. We should celebrate failure. We live with uncertainty. We survive by trial and error. And so we learn from our mistakes. The truth is that failure is endemic—in the lab, at the end of life, applying for your grant, and (of course) publishing your paper. But the festival invited an audience of largely young researchers to think more carefully about failure. What it is. What it isn't. And how we deal with it. Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist (and standup comedian) who studies voice, speech, and laughter, candidly laid out her failures. But she rightly noted that failing meant that you actually did something. Philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote about making mistakes, not failures, in his book Intuition Pumps (2013). “Making mistakes is the key to making progress”, he argued. Our mistakes are “the best learning opportunities of all”. They are “the only opportunity for learning or making something truly new”. Dennett took a Darwinian approach. “Biological evolution proceeds by a grand, inexorable process of trial and error—and without the errors the trials wouldn't accomplish anything.” He went further. “The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them—especially not from yourself.” There was more: “you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art”. “So when you make a mistake...examine your own recollections of the mistake as ruthlessly and as dispassionately as you can manage. It's not easy.” No, it isn't. “Try to acquire the weird practice of scouring your mistakes, delighting in uncovering the strange quirks that led you astray.” But the final twist to Dennett's argument is a surprise. Don't minimise your mistakes. Encourage them. “You should actively seek out opportunities to make grand mistakes, just so you can then recover from them.” Medicine doesn't do failure well. A friend recently told me how one prominent UK research funder invited her to apply for a grant. The implication was that the grant was hers for the taking. She was rejected. But what was worse was the lack of feedback. She was told that she had no right of appeal. And she was barred from reapplying for funding for a year. She felt crushed and humiliated. I'm sure readers have horror stories to tell from their experiences with The Lancet. For which, genuine and sincere apologies. In global health, we stare failure in the face every day. Depending on your point of view, the Sustainable Development Goals are either risibly utopian objectives or inspiring aspirations (at a class held last week at Sciences Po in Paris, students were evenly divided between these two extremes). I have learned many lessons from my own failures at The Lancet. The most important is probably audi alteram partem (listen to the other side). But I have recently learned another lesson thanks to research recently published in Nature: Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups, and security, by Yian Yin and colleagues. They showed that the traditional explanations for how failure leads to success—luck and learning—were insufficient. They found that even with the apparent absence of differences between two agents, they may still experience fundamentally different outcomes. They concluded their paper with a quote from Thomas Edison (1847–1931) that should cause us all to pause: “Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.” How close were you I wonder. Perhaps that anti-CV wasn't so crazy after all.

What is Right and What is Wrong in the Darwinian Approach to the Study of Religion

What is Right and What is Wrong in the Darwinian Approach to the Study of Religion