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Printable Handouts
Navigable Slide Index
- Introduction
- Definition of arms race
- 'The' arms race
- Other known political and economic arms races
- Evolutionary arms races
- The red queen
- Some common kinds of evolutionary arms races
- Evolutionary changes which are not arms races
- Historical evidence for arms races (1)
- Historical evidence for arms races (2)
- Who wins arms races?
- How do arms races end?
- Three case studies of ams races
- HIV and AIDS
- An arms race between HIV and its host
- A succession of escape mutants of HIV
- Mechanics of the arms race
- Influenza evolution: annual escape mutants
- Brood parasitism
- 'Brood parasitism in humans?
- Infant anonymity as an arms race (1)
- Infant anonymity as an arms race (2)
- Genomic imprinting: arms race within the genome
- Digression on imprinting
- Differential expression of fetal growth genes
- Reciprocal imprinting of IGF2 and IGF2R genes
- References
Topics Covered
- Arms races and evolutionary arms races
- What are they and how are they defined
- Features of arms races
- Who wins?: the Red Queen and the life-dinner principle
- Common arms races in nature
- Predators and prey, sexual selection, parent offspring conflict and host-parasite coevolution
- HIV evolution, parent-infant resemblance in humans and genomic imprinting
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Talk Citation
Pagel, M. (2019, November 21). Evolutionary arms races [Video file]. In The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection, Henry Stewart Talks. Retrieved December 24, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.69645/ROPP8700.Export Citation (RIS)
Publication History
Financial Disclosures
- Prof. Mark Pagel has not informed HSTalks of any commercial/financial relationship that it is appropriate to disclose.
A selection of talks on Genetics & Epigenetics
Transcript
Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Hello, and welcome to the lecture on Evolutionary Arms Races.
I'm Mark Pagel.
The idea of an arms race is a central concept in evolution.
And we will see over the next 45 minutes or so,
that they are widespread and common in nature,
and that the shape animal morphology,
behavior, and even their genetics.
The lecture will be divided into three parts.
In the first, we will define arms races,
and distinguish them from things that are not arms races.
The second part of the lecture will take up features of arms races,
and look for those features in real biological examples.
The third part will present three case studies of arms races in more detail.
Throughout the lecture, scientific papers will be mentioned,
and a list of these will be provided at the end.
0:49
Let's begin by defining what we mean by an arms race.
The term is often used to describe competitive situations in which
the goal is merely to stay ahead of another competitor.
The competitions might be among individuals,
among nations, or between biological species.
The key feature of an arms race is there is no absolute goal.
Rather, arms races are typified by one party
having the continuing goal of being better at,
or being able to deflect whatever the other party is doing.
It's of some interest that according to
the Oxford English Dictionary the phrase was first used in print in 1936,
referring to the buildup of arms leading to World War II.
However, the concept has been around far longer.
For example, we know that Darwin was aware of it.
1:38
Perhaps, the best known arms race,
and the contemporary event for which the phrase is most often
used was the competition following the World War II between
the United States and the Soviet Union for supremacy in
the number and sophistication of nuclear missiles.
The graphic shows the dramatic buildup in the numbers of
nuclear missiles by both sides in the four decades following World War II.
For many people, one of the most dramatic events of that era was the Soviet premier,
Nikita Khrushchev going to the United Nations,
removing his shoe and then banging it on
the table as he addressed the US ambassador shouting,
we will bury you.
The two sides had so many missiles each,
that they were said to be following a policy of
mutually assured destruction, aptly called MAD.
The astronomer Carl Sagan,
memorably described the policy of mutually assured destruction as like,
two men standing waist deep in gasoline.
One has three matches,
the other has five.
Other well-known political and economic arms races include