Does Evolution Need to Evolve?

Systems biology has a lot to offer the theory of neo-Darwinian evolution, writes Brandon Keim on Wired's blog. Here, he revisits conversations with Carl Woese, one of the first proponents of the idea that evolution is more complex than simply individual genetic changes within organisms, and that it should take into account entire biological systems. In looking beyond the unexplained jumps, Woese "invokes yet-to-be-quantified rules of complexity and emergence. These, he said, may also explain other exceptional jumps, such as the transition from protein fragments to single cells and from single-celled organisms to multicellular ones," writes Keim.