Microbial Life History - by Steven A Frank (Paperback)

About the Book

"This is a monograph about how natural selection shapes adaptation and biological design. It focuses on microbes, both because of their importance and because they are experimentally tractable, allowing biologists to test hypotheses about diversity and design that may not be possible in other systems. More specifically, comparison is key -- if scientists can predict how biological traits change when comparing different conditions, then they can reasonably say that they understand the fundamental evolutionary forces of design. The book is divided into two parts. The first part provides a theoretical foundation, showing how to study biological design through comparative predictions and how to formulate comparative predictions based on foundational aspects of biological theory. The second part applies the concepts and theories from part I to a specific biological trait, that of microbial metabolism. Ultimately, the book makes a case for how to study adaptation and biological design, a major problem in biology"--

Book Synopsis

A powerful framework for understanding how natural selection shapes adaptation and biological design

Design and diversity are the two great challenges in the study of life. Microbial Life History draws on the latest advances in microbiology to describe the fundamental forces of biological design and apply these evolutionary processes to a broad diversity of traits in microbial metabolism and biochemistry.

Emphasizing how to formulate and test hypotheses of adaptation, Steven Frank provides a new foundation for exploring the evolutionary forces of design. He discusses the economic principles of marginal valuations, trade-offs, and payoffs in risky and random environments; the social aspects of conflict and cooperation; the demographic aspects of age and spatial heterogeneity; and the engineering control theory principles by which systems adjust to environments. Frank then applies these evolutionary principles to the biochemistry of microbial metabolism, providing the first comprehensive link between the forces that shape biological design and cellular energetics.

Tracing how natural selection sculpts metabolism, Microbial Life History provides new perspectives on the life histories of organisms, from growth rate and survival to dispersal and defense against attack. Along the way, this incisive book addresses the conceptual and philosophical challenges confronting evolutionary biologists and other practitioners who study biological design and seek to apply its lessons.

About the Author

Steven A. Frank is Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. His books include Dynamics of Cancer, Immunology and Evolution of Infectious Disease, and Foundations of Social Evolution (all Princeton).