The history of life is a nearly four billion year old story of transformative change. This change ranges from dramatic macroscopic innovations such as the evolution of wings or eyes, to a myriad of molecular changes that form the basis of macroscopic innovations. We are familiar with many examples of innovations (qualitatively new phenotypes that provide a critical benefit) but have no systematic understanding of the principles that allow organisms to innovate. This book proposes several such principles as the basis of a theory of innovation, integrating recent knowledge about complex molecular phenotypes with more traditional Darwinian thinking. Central to the book are genotype networks: vast sets of connected genotypes that exist in metabolism and regulatory circuitry, as well as in protein and RNA molecules. The theory can successfully unify innovations that occur at different levels of organization. It captures known features of biological innovation, including the fact that many innovations occur multiple times independently, and that they combine existing parts of a system to new purposes. It also argues that environmental change is important to create biological systems that are both complex and robust, and shows how such robustness can facilitate innovation. Beyond that, the theory can reconcile neutralism and selectionism, as well as explain the role of phenotypic plasticity, gene duplication, recombination, and cryptic variation in innovation. Finally, its principles can be applied to technological innovation, and thus open to human engineering endeavours the powerful principles that have allowed life's spectacular success.

The first major synthesis of existing knowledge that forms the basis of a theory of innovation in living systems

Describes three broad classes of changes that have played a key role in the history of life: new metabolic pathways, new gene activity patterns, and new molecules

Demonstrates how these three different systems share a number of organisational principles that accomplish the goals of a theory of innovation

Accessible style makes it ideal graduate seminar course material

1: Introduction
2: Metabolic innovation
3: Innovation through regulation
4: Novel molecules
5: The origins of evolutionary innovation
6: Genotype networks, self-organization, and natural selection
7: A synthesis of neutralism and selectionism
8: The role of robustness for innovation
9: Gene duplications and innovation
10: The role of recombination
11: Environmental change in adaptation and innovation
12: Evolutionary constraints and genotype spaces
13: Phenotypic plasticity and innovation
14: Towards continuous genotype spaces
15: Evolvable technology and innovation
16: Summary and outlook
Bibliography
Index