The tool works at both ends? Formal analogies in population genetics (Cambridge, 2014) (original) (raw)

2014

Abstract

The relationship between statistical mechanics and population genetics has a long history. Both take advantage of statistics to address the behavior of large groups of entities. The main objective of this article is to asses the obstacles population genetics is meeting in its claim to explain biological phenomena from the conceptual apparatus of statistical mechanics, according to two recent articles (Sella & Hirsh 2005; Barton & Coe 2009). Several tools available to the later (phenomenological thermodynamics concept of thermal equilibrium, energy conservation) are missing in the former. Thus, in the absence of an adequate justification of the relevance of the analogy and without the satisfaction of certain basic assumptions, I argue that the explanatory strategy of the analogously based model is seriously compromised.

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