Natural Selection Series

Frank, S. A. 2011. Natural selection. I. Variable environments and uncertain returns on investment. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24:2299-2309. (abstract, reprint)

Frank, S. A. 2011. Natural selection. II. Developmental variability and evolutionary rate. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24:2310-2320. (abstract, reprint)

Frank, S. A. 2012. Natural selection. III. Selection versus transmission and the levels of selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25:227-243. (abstract, reprint)

Frank, S. A. 2012. Natural selection. IV. The Price equation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25:1002-1019. (abstract, reprint)

Frank, S. A. 2012. Natural selection. V. How to read the fundamental equations of evolutionary change in terms of information theory. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25:2377-2396. (abstract, reprint)

Frank, S. A. 2013. Natural selection. VI. Partitioning the information in fitness and characters by path analysis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 26:457-471. (abstract, reprint)

Frank, S. A. 2013. Natural selection. VII. History and interpretation of kin selection theory. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 26:1151-1184. (abstract, reprint, supplement1, supplement2)

Get all seven articles in a single combined pdf file

A brief summary of some key points from articles III-VII:

Frank, S. A. 2014. The inductive theory of natural selection: summary and synthesis. arXiv:1412.1285. (abstract, preprint)

also available in a simpler, reduced version:

Frank, S. A. and Fox, G. A. 2019. The inductive theory of natural selection. Pages 000-000 in The Theory of Evolution, S. M. Scheiner and D. P. Mindell, eds. University of Chicago Press. (abstract, reprint)

The following article significantly extends and synthesizes the abstract structure of natural selection theory and relates that theory to other disciplines, including physics, probability, information theory, and Jaynesian maximum entropy approaches:

Frank, S. A. 2017. Universal expressions of population change by the Price equation: natural selection, information, and maximum entropy production. Ecology and Evolution 7:3381–3396. (abstract, reprint)

and a second article that more incisively highlights novel connections between natural selection, the Price equation, and the fundamental equations of various disciplines:

Frank, S. A. 2018. The Price equation program: simple invariances unify population dynamics, thermodynamics, probability, information and inference. Entropy 20:978. (abstract, reprint)

also available in a simpler, reduced version:

Frank, S. A. 2020. Simple unity among the fundamental equations of science. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 375:20190351. (abstract, reprint)