Santiago F. Elena Ricard Solé Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems (Paperback)

Further Details

Title: Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems
Condition: New
Author: Santiago F. Elena, Ricard Solé
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Paperback
ISBN-10: 0691158843
EAN: 9780691158846
ISBN: 9780691158846
Genre: Science Nature & Math
Release Date: 12/11/2018
Language: English
Country/Region of Manufacture: US
Item Height: 216mm
Item Length: 140mm
Item Weight: 318g
Series: Primers in Complex Systems
Description:

How complex systems theory sheds new light on the adaptive dynamics of viral populations

Viruses are everywhere, infecting all sorts of living organisms, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest mammals. Many are harmful parasites, but viruses also play a major role as drivers of our evolution as a species and are essential regulators of the composition and complexity of ecosystems on a global scale. This concise book draws on complex systems theory to provide a fresh look at viral origins, populations, and evolution, and the coevolutionary dynamics of viruses and their hosts.

New viruses continue to emerge that threaten people, crops, and farm animals. Viruses constantly evade our immune systems, and antiviral therapies and vaccination campaigns can be powerless against them. These unique characteristics of virus biology are a consequence of their tremendous evolutionary potential, which enables viruses to quickly adapt to any environmental challenge. Ricard Solé and Santiago Elena present a unified framework for understanding viruses as complex adaptive systems. They show how the application of complex systems theory to viral dynamics has provided new insights into the development of AIDS in patients infected with HIV-1, the emergence of new antigenic variants of the influenza A virus, and other cutting-edge advances.

Essential reading for biologists, physicists, and mathematicians interested in complexity, Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems also extends the analogy of viruses to the evolution of other replicators such as computer viruses, cancer, and languages.

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