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Related Experiment Videos

How organisms do the right thing: The attractor hypothesis.

John M. Emlen1, D. Carl Freeman, April Mills

  • 1Northwest Biological Science Center, Biological Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, 6505 NE 65th Street, Seattle, Washington 98115.

Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.)
|June 5, 2003
PubMed
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The attractor hypothesis suggests that organismal adaptation arises from self-organization and physical laws, not solely from genetic changes. This challenges Neo-Darwinian theory by proposing that adaptation is an emergent property of complexity, independent of natural selection.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Complex Systems Theory
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Neo-Darwinian theory explains adaptive traits over generations but struggles with rapid organismal responses to environmental changes.
  • The theory lacks mechanisms for plasticity and canalization, suggesting its incompleteness in explaining organismal behavior.
  • A growing sentiment indicates that factors beyond genetics, mutation, drift, and natural selection are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose the attractor hypothesis, viewing organisms as self-organizing systems.
  • To argue that basic physical laws and organismal acquisitiveness drive adaptation.
  • To differentiate between generational (natural selection) and within-generational (self-organization) adaptation.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Conceptual extension of the Neo-Darwinian paradigm.
  • Argumentation based on physical laws and organismal complexity.
  • Clarification of adaptation concepts through a new theoretical framework.

Main Results:

  • Adaptation is presented as an emergent property of organismal complexity, often independent of genomic changes.
  • The attractor hypothesis posits that much adaptation is a tautological outcome of physical laws and organismal nature.
  • Two distinct forms of adaptation are defined: generational (fitness maximization) and within-generational (energetic efficiency).

Conclusions:

  • The attractor hypothesis offers a complementary view to Neo-Darwinian theory, emphasizing self-organization.
  • It provides a framework for understanding phenomena like plasticity, genetic architecture, and punctuated equilibrium.
  • The hypothesis suggests testable predictions for future research in genetics and physiology.