Word: evolutionism
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Fine-tuned by 4 billion years of evolution, protein chemistry has a lot to recommend it. To produce Kevlar, for instance, requires vats of concentrated sulfuric acid that must be maintained at high pressure. But spiders produce silk in the open air using water as a solvent. "I am absolutely...
The central idea is that self-organization is almost inevitable in a wide range of systems, both natural and man-made. The consistent shape of sand dunes marching across a desert, the evolution of complicated body parts such as eyes and kidneys, the equilibrium between supply and demand in a...
By this measure, complexity works, at least roughly. Computer simulations of ( life, the best-known application of the theory, create onscreen worlds of cyber-creatures that evolve in ways that eerily parallel real life. Biophysicist Stuart Kauffman of the Santa Fe Institute says confidently, "Biological evolution proceeds at the boundary...
But other times, Hwang forgets the cardinal rule and lets his characters tell rather than show; Randall spells out, "This change in appearance has somehow changed the inner man." In impeding the otherwise rich evolution of plot and character with soapbox monologues, Face Value underestimates its audience. Hopefully, much of...
Chemicals may help explain (at least to scientists) the feelings of passion and compassion, but why do people tend to fall in love with one partner rather than a myriad of others? Once again, it's partly a function of evolution and biology. "Men are looking for maximal fertility in...