Protein Perfection Proteins are molecules of superb design. The chance of a purely random process arriving at any one of them is less than the chance of rolling 300 sixes in succession. Meta Evolution Evolution is able to happen faster than we might otherwise have thought possible. The mechanisms of change in DNA are themselves subject to change. This has a profound effect on the evolutionary process.
Evolution benefits from indirectly acting genes.
The 'VL' model explores the effect of a gene which affects another gene. The model shows that an indirectly acting gene can be selected for along with the changes it produces. Gene Duplication Molecular biologists are familiar with the observation that when under stress, bacteria evolve to have extra copies of selected genes. This effect, 'gene amplification' is in fact part of an evolved, complex, general purpose mechanism for rapid adaptation. A mathematical view of evolution compares the problem of optimising a genome to that of finding the highest point on a landscape by taking small steps.