Physiological complexity and evolution in theoretical biology

Biological evolution has involved multiple processes, such as inheritance of acquired characteristics, natural genetic engineering, symbiogenesis, and niche construction, that are incompatible with the orthodox gene-centric view of neo-Darwinism. In this lecture I will show that there is no privileged level of causation in biology. “The genome is an organ of the cell” (Barbara McClintock, Nobel Prize 1983).