Evolutionary Conundrums - Cooperation and Traversing Fitness Landscapes

Explore cutting-edge research in evolutionary biology through this lecture by Jeremy Van Cleve from the University of Kentucky. Delve into two persistent areas of interest: the evolution of costly cooperation and the process of adaptation across rough fitness landscapes. Discover how social norms and their underlying psychological mechanisms influence the evolution of cooperation. Examine the differences in how rapidly evolving populations cross fitness valleys compared to slower-evolving ones. Learn about the application of Markov Decision Processes in determining optimal antibiotic use schedules based on known pathogen fitness landscapes. Gain insights into complex evolutionary processes and their practical applications in fields such as medicine and biology.