Evolvability and the Evolution of Complexity

Explaining how complexity evolves is one of the most important and persistent themes in biology. Though natural selection is central to answering this question, several different fields of biology have recently identified conditions that make lineages of organisms "evolvable": capable of changing in ways that radically expand the range of further possible changes. However, these conditions are currently not well integrated, and often ambiguous. This project will clarify and integrate the ideas from these different fields, using empirical examples and simple models. The outcome will be a general framework for understanding the evolution of complexity, produced in way that comprehensible to a wide educated audience.