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Related Experiment Videos

What is complexity?

Christoph Adami1

  • 1Digital Life Laboratory 136-93, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91109, USA. adami@caltech.edu

Bioessays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
|November 26, 2002
PubMed
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Physical complexity, a measure of genomic information, likely increases during asexual evolution without environmental change due to natural selection. This concept offers a clearer view of evolutionary trends.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Theoretical Biology
  • Information Theory

Background:

  • Defining and measuring complexity in biological evolution is challenging due to conceptual and practical limitations of existing definitions.
  • Previous definitions of complexity for dynamical systems and organisms lack unambiguous application.
  • A need exists for a clear, measurable definition of complexity to study evolutionary trends.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce and define 'physical complexity' as a measure of genomic information an organism stores about its environment.
  • To investigate the trend of physical complexity during molecular evolution, particularly in asexual organisms.
  • To explore factors that may influence the evolution of physical complexity.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized concepts from automata theory and information theory to define physical complexity.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Proposed a theoretical argument based on natural selection acting on asexual organisms in a stable niche.
  • Considered potential counteracting factors such as co-evolution, mutation rates, sexual reproduction, and changing environments.

    • Main Results:

    • Argued that physical complexity is expected to increase in asexual organisms evolving in a constant environment due to natural selection.
    • Identified conditions where complexity might decrease, including co-evolution, high mutation rates, sexual populations, and time-dependent landscapes.
    • Hypothesized that these counteracting factors often facilitate complexity evolution.

    Conclusions:

    • Physical complexity provides an intuitive and practical measure for studying evolutionary trends.
    • Natural selection in stable environments favors an increase in physical complexity.
    • A comprehensive theory of physical complexity for co-evolving species is predicted to reveal an overall trend towards increased biological complexity.