Overview

The concept of evolution has historically been applied to the origins and adaptation of biological traits and species. But what if the notion of evolution is more pervasive and multifaceted? The concept of evolution has historically been applied to the origins and adaptation of biological traits and species. But what if the notion of evolution is more pervasive and multifaceted? In his groundbreaking earlier book, Active Biological Evolution, Frank Laukien made a startling, evidence-based assertion: While random mutations were the primary change mechanism of evolution during early life and remain relevant in pathobiology, in the era of modern biology... Adaptive evolution via genomic and epigenetic changes prior to Darwinian selection is primarily the result of active cell biology processes. In short, Laukien concluded: The processes of adaptive evolution are, themselves, evolving. In Origins & Evolution, his follow-up work, Laukien continues to challenge conventional wisdom and offer novel insights. Employing the framework of evolution, he explores feedback-driven processes in the realms of cosmological, planetary, geological, and climate evolution and their effects on life and organismal evolution. Laukien delves into: The origins of molecular evolvability and cellular life, as well as of astrobiology with putative exoplanet life Earth's tumultuous evolution with frozen episodes and warm periods with carbon dioxide levels five times higher than today The evolutionary impact of six mass extinctions in the last 600 million years and the chances of future mass extinctions Our evolving climate-with over 50 near-regular Northern ice ages in the last 3 million years, along with the unpredictable consequences of anthropogenic climate change Eusociality in homo sapiens-the only intelligent species with a technological civilization that has evolved on Earth in 3.8 billion years among 100 million species The concept of a lifetime of species in evolution, from ten thousands to millions of years, and the implications for the evolution of future hominin species and hybrids A must-read for anyone pondering the evolutionary history and future of life, as well as of Homo sapiens and the meaning of our existence.

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Frank Laukien's tour de force, comprehensive in scope and insightful in content, is a must-read for anyone interested in the origin, evolution, and meaning of life in the cosmos. There is no other topic in modern science that is more expansive and far reaching. This new understanding has crucial implications for the origin of primitive and intelligent life. -Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, Harvard University; New York Times bestselling Author of Extraterrestrial From medicine to philosophy, [Frank Laukien]...urges you to adopt an expanded view of biological evolution as one inherently biased to select the most flexible and efficient...processes. Natural biological evolution evolves! A must-read! -Dimitar Sasselov, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University; Director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative; Author of The Life of Super-Earths [Combining] powerful writing, compelling arguments, and erudite references, and using the conceptual framework of adaptive evolution, Laukien attempts to demystify cosmology, extraterrestrial life, the emergence of meaning-all the way to climate evolution. -Azra Raza, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Columbia University; Author of The First Cell There is no doubt that all textbooks dealing with the paradigms of evolution now need to be rewritten. Active Biological Evolution and Origins & Evolution represent the next-generation books on evolution-not only in biology, but with consequences in philosophy and our culture. Frank Laukien's two volumes...touch on questions at the limits of meaning and interpretation. - Dr. Hermann Requardt, Vice Chairman of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft; Former CTO of Siemens AG; Former CEO of Siemens Medical Division; Executive Board member of acatech A daring book. Laukien applies modern 21st-century evolutionary biology thinking to subjects as diverse as how the cosmos came to be and how we humans developed the social institutions we have today-and where we may go in the future with ever-increasing technological capabilities. Readers are in for a stimulating voyage. -Professor James A. Shapiro, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago; Author of Evolution: A View from the 21st Century

Author Information

Frank H. Laukien, born in Stuttgart in 1960, grew up in Germany, where he obtained his Abitur as valedictorian, before coming to MIT and the United States as a physics undergraduate student.Today, he is the Chairman, President, and CEO of Bruker Corporation, a company with 7000 employees worldwide that is dedicated to high-performance life-science tools, scientific instrumentation, and diagnostic solutions (Nasdaq: BRKR). He joined Bruker in 1988 and became CEO of Bruker Daltonics in 1997, a company he took public in 2000. Dr. Laukien was named an Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in New England by E&Y.Frank Laukien holds a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. In the 1990s, Dr. Laukien was a visiting lecturer in NMR and mass spectrometry at the University of Bremen and later an adjunct professor at the Institute of Mass Spectrometry of the University of Amsterdam. In 2021, he was appointed as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology of Harvard University, where he also is a member of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative and of the Galileo Project.Dr. Laukien has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and is a co-inventor on many scientific instrumentation patents. Previously, he served on the Dean's Advisory Committee of the School of Science of MIT, and he is currently on the Visiting Committee of the MIT Department of Chemistry. For many years, he served on the Board of the Analytical, Life Science & Diagnostics Association (ALDA), including one year as ALDA chairman.In 2017, Dr. Laukien was elected a senator of acatech, the German Academy of Natural and Technical Sciences.In 2020, he created the podcast series Origins & Evolution with Professor of Astronomy Dimitar Sasselov, the Director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative.Since 2020, Laukien has been the lead organizer of the Cancer Evolution Symposium and Cancer Evolution Seminar Series, which has been summarized in a special issue on cancer evolution of the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology (PBMB), published in October 2021.In August 2021, he became co-chair of the new scientific working group on Cancer Evolution of the American Association for Cancer Research, and since June 2020, Dr. Laukien has also been a member of The Oncology Think Tank (TOTT).Together with lead founder and Harvard astronomy professor Avi Loeb, in July 2021, Dr. Laukien has become the co-founder of the Galileo Project for the systematic scientific search for evidence of extraterrestrial technological artifacts. Frank lives in New England. He is passionate about basic scientific and medical research for the benefit and advancement of humanity. Frank is an enthusiastic life science innovator and entrepreneur and a devoted father and grandfather. He enjoys hiking, swimming, tennis, and skiing.

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