Does Group Dynamics Trump Natural Selection?
09/29/2003 There seems to be a move among biologists to diminish the role of natural selection in biological evolution. A press release from Arizona State University, for instance, attributes the complexity of insect societies to network dynamics. The complexity is an emergent property of social interactions, not natural selection acting on the genes. This is Jennifer Fewell s contention in a paper on insect social order published in the Sept 26 issue of Science1, part of a special section on Networks in Biology2 (see also next headline). Other papers in the series discuss protein networks, nerve networks, and metabolic networks within this apparently new paradigm of self-organization that emerges apart from natural selection acting on genetic mutations. In the introductory paper, Life and the Art of Networks, 2, Jasny and Ray explain that biologists are moving beyond compiling a parts list and trying to understand the larger picture of how components interact in complex processes. The
