Background: In
this thoughtful review, Jacob develops "tinkering" as
a metaphor for the mechanism underlying the evolution of
novel forms and functions. Evolution proceeds not as an
engineer carefully designing each component to create objects
with a purpose, but as a tinkerer who works with the pile
of "junk" at hand while never really knowing
what exactly he is going to produce. He argues that evolution
proceeds less often by creating new chemical functions
than by tinkering with the organization and distribution
of preexisting functions. He also explores the hierarchical
structure of natural phenomena and the limits of reductionism
in that while we might explain a higher level phenomena
in terms of its components, we can not deduce such a phenomenon
from their components.
submitted
by: John Doebley
