If natural selection is indeed an originating source of information (unique
for life), as Manfred Eigen contends (see below), what exactly is or could
be its role in the preservation of information?
I am struck in the Time&Bits context by Eigen's observation that
"Information - unlike energy - is not subject to a conservation law," and
am intrigued by the idea Darwinian evolution and the theory of entropy
might be useful metaphors for the problem of digital continuity, even at
the risk of joining "those whose propositions border on the fanciful."
Eigen will speak at the UCLA Marschak colloquium this Friday. Danny knows
the event.
Martin Greenberger
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February 27: MANFRED EIGEN, Professor and Chairman, Max Planck Institute
for Biophysical Chemistry, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1967 will be making
a presentation to the Marschak Colloquium on Friday, February 27, from 1 to
3 in room C-301 in the Anderson School Building on the topic:
DARWINIAN EVOLUTION AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL FITNESS LANDSCAPES
This presentation is cosponsored by the Department
of Life Sciences, Center for the Study of Evolution and the
Origin of Life, and the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry. His abstract and biography follow.
**********************************************************************
ABSTRACT:
What is the distinguishing feature of a living system that
singularizes it from every non-living chemical ensemble,
regardless of the extent of the complexity. The
differentiable characteristic of the living system is
information. Information assures the controlled
reproduction of all the constituents, thereby ensuring the
conservation of viability. Information - unlike energy - is
not subject to a conservation law. Hence the fundamental
question behind the origin of life is: How can information
originate?
Information theory, which was pioneered by Claude Shannon,
cannot answer this question: this theory is most successful
in dealing with problems of coding and transmission. In
principle, the answer was formulated 130 years ago by
Charles Darwin: The information that is unique for life
evolves by virtue of natural selection. Today we can be
more specific: Natural selection is a non-equilibrium
process. It is an inherent consequence of mutagenous
self-replication at several levels of organization; for
instance it is evident in molecules such as nucleic acids,
in molecular complexes such as viruses and in autonomous
forms of life such as micro or higher organisms. New
physical concepts have been introduced in order to deal
quantitatively with the dynamics of the molecular
generation of genetic information. They provide a physical
foundation for Darwinian behaviour, yet they introduce
major modifications in its classical interpretation. The
lecture will deal with these physical concepts, such as
sequence space, quasi-species and hypercycles and
will scrutinize their adequacy for rationalizing
experimental results obtained with molecular model systems
and with viruses under natural conditions. Elucidating the
principles of molecular self-organization has made possible
to construct automated machines that make it possible for
genetic information to evolve under controlled conditions
in an abridged time scale.
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MANFRED EIGEN: BIOGRAPHY
For many years the evolution of self-organizing systems has
been investigated at the Max-Planck Institute for
BioPhysical Chemistry in Gottingen. Viruses that infect
bacteria were used to carry out this research. Methods
employing these "evolution machines" were developed by
Manfred Eigen who received the Nobel Prize in 1967 for his
research on very rapid chemical kinetics. Already at that
time his scientific interest was focused almost exclusively
on problems concerning evolution. In 1971 he published a
pioneering paper dealing with two new concepts: the
"self-organization of matter" and the "evolution of
biological macromolecules"; these have since become
classical concepts in the field of evolution. In 1992 he
was awarded the prestigious Paul Ehrlich Prize for the
theory presented in that paper and for its far-reaching
consequences.
Eigen was born in 1927. After obtaining a Ph.D. in physics he
began his scientific career in 1951 at the Institute for
Physical Chemistry at the University in Gottingen. In
1953 Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer offered him a position at
the Max-Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry in
Gottingen. In 1958 he was elected a scientific member of
the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. He became head of the
department of chemical kinetics in 1962, and a director at
the institute in 1964. In 1971 the institute was
substantially expanded and is called today the
Max-Planck Institute for BioPhysical Chemistry.
Manfred Eigen has always captivated the attention of his
contemporaries by his ability to generate scientific
insights from the latest findings in physics and molecular
biology; however, unlike those whose propositions border on
the fanciful, his ideas never digress from sound scientific
knowledge.
Initially his thoughts on molecular evolution, and thus the
development of life on earth, centered around
self-replicating molecules that existed about 3.8 billion
years ago. From the very beginning these molecules must
have possessed such diverse structures that they were
subject to the process of natural selection.
More recently his interest has focused on the technological
utilization of ideas concerning evolution. By employing
the so-called evolution machines that utilize the
principles of biological evolution, new compounds can
become optimally adapted for particular functions. In the
late sixties, Rudolf Rigler, at present professor at the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, worked for several
years as a postdoctoral fellow with Manfred Eigen. During
this time preliminary ideas for developing a new
analytical method - fluorescence correlation spectrometry
(FCS) - for detecting single molecules were conceived. This
technology was subsequently perfected by Professor Rigler,
and FCS is currently employed for studying molecular
evolution. Manfred Eigen has named this new research field
"evolutionary biotechnology". In 1993, in collaboration
with coworkers and colleagues, he initiated the foundation
of the firm EVOTEC BioSystems GmbH in Hamburg. This firm is
investigating technological applications of evolutionary
biotechnology. This includes pharmacoscreening, molecular
diagnostics (e.g. of viruses) as well as the evolutionary
optimization of agents.
Many honors in addition to the Nobel Prize and the Paul
Ehrlich Prize already mentioned above - have been conferred
on him. These include thirteen honorary degrees, numerous
medals and memberships in national and foreign academies.
Eigen is ranked as one of the leading internationally
renowned scientists studying the molecular mechanism of
evolution in nature.