Sunday, April 21, 2013

"The Adaptive Landscape is dead - long live the Adaptive Landscape!" Review of our OUP-volume in TREE

Posted by Erik Svensson

In a forthcoming review in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Andrew MacColl (University of Nottingham, UK), has an entertaining, albeit short, review of our edited volume "The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology"

The review is quite favorable, but will not be quoted in its entire length, but can be read here.  But I still want to cite one of the most entertaining part:

"A history of vicious power struggles in mediaeval Europe led to a desperate need to avoid interregna on the death of a monarch and, hence, the instantaneous proclamation of an heir's succession. The adaptive landscape, a king among metaphors, has been declared dead many times. Yet its dynasty continues; the power of its simple evocation supplantable only by a parliament of similar ideas that risks becoming all things to all people. A surprising aspect of The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology (no criticism this, it could hardly have been otherwise) is that it cannot, even after the 80 years of academic endeavour that it celebrates, deliver a unified verdict on so apparently simple a concept. Instead, it does an excellent job of showcasing the radiation of ideas that has diverged from Wright's original [1]."

P.S.: You can order your copy here and if you are interested in reading the volume in a group of graduate students, postdocs or faculty members, there is an excellent study plan here. 

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