Abstract

EUGENIO, ANDRADE. Statistical Mechanics, Neo-Darwinism and the Prefiguration of the Science of Complexity. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2009, vol.14, suppl.1, pp.169-186. ISSN 0120-548X.

This paper aims to illustrate: 1. that for the founders of population genetics, Fisher and Wright, there was a close relationship between physics and biology. 2. The mathematics of population genetics aimed at placing evolutionary theory as a -hard science- at the same level as Boltzmann and Maxwell’s physics. 3. This effort showed that the concept of evolution by natural selection does not contradict the laws of thermodynamics that rule the evolution of physical systems. 4. The metaphor that paradoxically represents living beings as -Maxwellian demons- anticipated some aspects of the present day evolutionary theories that recur to the thermodynamic of complex adaptive systems as developed by Prigogine, 1970, and Kauffman, 1993. 5. To conclude, I contrast Darwin and Einstein in order to clarify, how can be understood today, the bridges and bidirectional connections between physics and biology.

Keywords : Boltzmann; complex adaptive systems; entropy; information; Maxwell’s demons.

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