The EvoSimulator

EvoSimulator:  a simple tool illustrating the power of ‘mutation + selection’

The evolution simulator or ‘EvoSimulator’ is a simple program by Raphaël Helaers and Michel C. Milinkovitch illustrating the ease with which complexity can be generated by the COMBINATION of random variation and selection of favored variants.

Download the EvoSimulator standalone application here:
    -Mac OSX version
    -Windows version
    -Linux version

Background

"Intelligent design" (ID) is a recent attempt to introduce neo-creationism in the scientific sphere.

The central proposition of ID is that natural mechanisms would be unable to produce complex living beings. This is simply incorrect as the selection of random variants allows for the optimization of genotypes-phenotypes in times compatible with biological evolution. In addition, there are ample evidence of artificial as well as natural selection such that evolution by selection is not an hypothesis but a fact (because it can be directly observed, as surely as apples falling because of gravitation). Classical examples of natural selection are the evolution of antibiotic resistance of bacteria, the evolution of pesticide resistance of insects, and the evolution of drug resistance of HIV.

So, evolution is a fact, not a theory. On the other hand, the current understanding of the exact relative importance of each of the mechanisms involved in evolution (mutations, selection, genetic drift, epigenetic modifications, duplication and losses of genes, self-organizational mechanisms, developmental constraints, etc.) constitutes a theory. Again, the mechanisms listed above are not theories but facts. The articulated importance of these mechanisms to explain the fact of evolution is a theory which is called ‘Neo-Darwinism’ or ‘Modern Synthesis’ because it integrates Darwinism (variation and selection) as well as the additional mechanisms discovered through over a century of molecular biology.

The simple program provided above allows to preform simulations of mutation, selection, and recombination.

References and links

1. ✓The simulation of mutation and selection on a population of sentences has been suggested by Richard Dawkins in his book “The blind watchmaker” and implemented in a program called “the weasel program”.
   

2. ✓Why is the ID thesis incorrect and how this approach is inconsistent with the foundations of the scientific method?
   The University Journal (in French)
   Flyer (in French)
   

3. ✓Understanding Evolution, you one-stop source for information on evolution (University of Berkeley)
   

4. ✓Evolution resources from the National Academies
   

5. ✓PhyloIntelligence, a site summarizing some of the evidence for  evolution
   

6. ✓NOVA TV programs on evolution
   

7. ✓Evolution on Wikipedia:
   Introduction
   More