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Life forms exhibit such a degree of exquisite organization that it seems impossible that they could have developed out of a process of trial and error, as intimated by the theory of Darwinian evolution. In this general public paper I…
A celebrated and controversial hypothesis conjectures that some biological systems --parts, aspects, or groups of them-- may extract important functional benefits from operating at the edge of instability, halfway between order and…
Chimera state is a recently discovered dynamical phenomenon in arrays of nonlocally coupled oscillators, that displays a self-organized spatial pattern of co-existing coherence and incoherence. We discuss the appearance of the chimera…
Why do some females menstruate at all? Answering this question has implications for understanding the tight links between reproductive function and organismal immunity. Here we build on the growing evidence that menstruation is the…
It is generally recognized that a distinguishing feature of life is its peculiar capability to avoid equilibration. The origin of this capability and its evolution along the timeline of abiogenesis is not yet understood. We propose to study…
Explaining biodiversity is a fundamental issue in ecology. A long-standing puzzle lies in the paradox of the plankton: many species of plankton feeding on a limited variety of resources coexist, apparently flouting the competitive exclusion…
A transition from asymmetric to symmetric patterns in time-dependent extended systems is described. It is found that one dimensional cellular automata, started from fully random initial conditions, can be forced to evolve into complex…
We consider two stable heteroclinic cycles rotating in opposite directions, coupled via diffusive terms. A complete synchronization in this system is impossible, and numerical exploration shows that chaos is abundant at low levels of…
The puzzle associated with the cost of sex, an old problem of evolutionary biology, is discussed here from the point of view of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The results suggest, in a simplified model, that the prevalence of sexual…
We investigate theoretically the time evolution of a one-dimensional system of spin-1/2 fermions in a harmonic trap after, initially, a spiral spin configuration far-from equilibrium is created. We predict a spin segregation building up in…
When a large number of similar entities interact among each other and with their environment at a low scale, unexpected outcomes at higher spatio-temporal scales might spontaneously arise. This nontrivial phenomenon, known as emergence,…
In species reproducing both sexually and asexually clones are often more common in recently established populations. Earlier studies have suggested that this pattern arises from natural selection favouring asexual recruitment in young…
Mating preferences of many biological species are not constant but season-dependent. Within the framework of evolutionary game theory this can be modeled with two finite opposite-sex populations playing against each other following the…
We develop a mathematical model of extinction and coexistence in a generic predator-prey ecosystem composed of two herbivores in asymmetrical competition and a hunter exerting a predatory pressure on both species. With the aim of…
Predators may attack isolated or grouped prey in a cooperative, collective way. Whether a gregarious behavior is advantageous to each species depends on several conditions and game theory is a useful tool to deal with such a problem. We…
Interpretation of empirical results based on a taxa's lifetime distribution shows apparently conflicting results. Species' lifetime is reported to be exponentially distributed, whereas higher order taxa, such as families or genera, follow a…
In 1976, Gallagher showed that, conditional on the Hardy--Littlewood conjectures, the number of primes below $x$ in a randomly chosen short interval of length $\lambda \log x$ asymptotically follows a Poisson distribution with mean…
The predator-prey dynamic appertaining to two species is explored, wherein the predator species is structured into different stages. As evidenced from natural documentation, the immature predators possess the potential to predate albeit not…
This chapter is an overview of foundational results in the mathematical theory of replicator systems. Its primary aim is to provide a unified framework for the mathematical formalisation of evolutionary processes in the spirit of…
A symmetrical cubic discrete coupled logistic equation is proposed to model the symbiotic interaction of two isolated species. The coupling depends on the population size of both species and on a positive constant $\lambda$, named the…