To facilitate discussion, we are publishing the abstracts and conclusions/summaries/excerpts of the 24 papers from the Cornell Conference on the Origin of Biological Information here at Uncommon Descent, with cumulative links to previous papers at the bottom of each page. You can get from anywhere to anywhere in the system.
Note: A blow-by-blow account of the difficulties that the authors experienced from Darwin lobby attempts to censor the book by denying it publication with Springer are detailed here. Fortunately, the uproar resulted in an opportunity for readers like yourself to read the book online. That said, the hard cover version is now shipping.
The Abstract for “Using Numerical Simulation to Test the “Mutation-Count” Hypothesis” by Wesley H. Brewer, John R. Baumgardner, John C. Sanford:
There is now abundant evidence that the continuous accumulation of deleterious mutations within natural populations poses a major problem for neo-Darwinian theory. It has been proposed that a viable evolutionary mechanism for halting the accumulation of deleterious mutations might arise if fitness depends primarily on an individual’s “mutation-count”. In this paper the hypothetical “ mutation-count mechanism” (MCM) is tested using numerical simulation, to determine the viability of the hypothesis and to determine what biological factors affect the relative efficacy of this mechanism.
The MCM is shown to be very strong when given all the following un-natural conditions: all mutations have an equal effect, low environmental variance, and full truncation selection. Conversely, the MCM effect essentially disappears given any of the following natural conditions: asexual reproduction, or probability selection, or accumulating mutations having a natural distribution of fitness effects covering several orders of magnitude. Realistic levels of environmental variance can also abolish or greatly diminish the MCM effect.
Equal mutation effects when combined with partial truncation (quasi-truncation) can create a moderate MCM effect, but this disappears in the presence of less uniform mutation effects and reasonable levels of environmental variance.
MCM does not appear to occur under most biologically realistic conditions, and so is not a generally applicable evolutionary mechanism. MCM is not generally capable of stopping deleterious mutation accumulation in most natural populations. More.
See also: Origin of Biological Information conference: Its goals
Open Mike: Origin of Biological Information conference: Origin of life studies flatlined
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference— Can you answer these conundrums about information?
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Is a new definition of information needed for biology? (Chapter 2)
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—New definition of information proposed: Universal Information (Chapter 2)
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Chapter Three, Dembski, Ewert, and Marks on the true cost of a successful search
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Chapter Three on the true cost of a successful search—Conservation of information
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Chapter Four: Pragmatic Information
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference—Chapter Four, Pragmatic information: Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter Five Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter Five – Basener on limits of chaos – Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter Six – Ewert et all on the Tierra evolution program – Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter Six – Ewert et all on the Tierra evolution program – Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 7—Probability of Beneficial Mutation— Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 7—Probability of Beneficial Mutation— Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 8—Entropy, Evolution and Open Systems—Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 8—Entropy, Evolution and Open Systems—Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 9—Information and Thermodynamics in Living Systems—Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 9—Information and Thermodynamics in Living Systems—Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 10—Biological Information and Genetic Theory: Introductory Comments—Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 10—Biological Information and Genetic Theory: Introductory Comments— Excerpt
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 11—Not Junk After All—Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 11—Not Junk After All—Conclusion
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 12—“Can Purifying Natural Selection Preserve Biological Information?”—Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 12——“Can Purifying Natural Selection Preserve Biological Information?”—Excerpt
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 13—“Selection Threshold Severely Constrains Capture of Beneficial Mutations”— Abstract
Open Mike: Cornell OBI Conference Chapter 13—“Selection Threshold Severely Constrains Capture of Beneficial Mutations”—Concluding Comments excerpt