A Counter to the Adaptationist Narrative: The Importance of Entropy and Population Size in Evolution

Watch a scientific lecture where Dr. Bhavin Khatri from Imperial College London explores the fundamental aspects of evolution and challenges the traditional adaptationist narrative. Delve into how phenotypic variation drives evolution and examine the critical yet often overlooked ability to predict emerging variations. Learn about biophysical models of genotype-phenotype maps and discover how the interplay between mapping redundancy/entropy and genetic drift in finite populations leads to non-optimal outcomes. Explore the phenomenon of protein marginal stability through a new lens that attributes it to the balance between selection forces and genetic drift rather than specific evolutionary purposes. Understand how population size influences speciation rates and gain insights into how smaller populations might experience more rapid speciation events. The lecture, presented as part of the "New statistical physics in living matter" series, offers a fresh perspective on evolutionary theory by incorporating principles of statistical physics and population dynamics.