Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Three billion years of research and development

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, Article number: 0035 (2017) Cite this article

Subjects

Major societal problems such as health, energy, food and clean water can be confronted using evolutionary principles, yet this approach is rarely explored. Here, we illustrate how nature's solutions can be applied and discuss the need for evolutionary biologists to inform the general public and influence decision makers.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Examples of nature's solutions being employed to everyday problems.

References

  1. Palumbi, S. R. The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change (W. W. Norton & Co., 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Tackling Drug Resistance Infections Globally: Final Report and Recommendations (Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2016).

  3. Barboas, T. M.& Levy, S. B. Drug Resist. Updates 3, 303–311 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Day, T. & Read, A. F. PLoS Comput. Biol. 12, e1004689 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Baym, M., Stone, L. K. & Kishony, R. Science 351, aad3292 (2016)

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Cong, L. et al. Science 339, 819–823 (2013)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Aktipis, C. Aet al. Nat. Rev. Cancer 13, 883–892 (2013)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Shanks, K. et al. Sci. Rep. 5, 12267 (2015).

  9. Bryan, C. G., Hallberg, K. B. & Johnson, D. B. Hydrometallurgy 83, 184–194 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Barber, J. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 365, 1007–1023 (2007)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Vukusic, P., Hallam, B. & Noyes, J. Science 315, 348 (2007)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Amara, A A., Salem, S. R. & Shabeb, M. S. A. Glob. J. Biotechnol. Biochem. 4, 104–114 (2009)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Griffin, A. S., West, S. A. & Buckling, A. Nature 430, 1024–1027 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Taborsky, M., Frommen, J. G. & Riehl, C. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 371, 20150472 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Carroll, S. P. et al. Sciencehttp://doi.org/btzv (2014).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nina Wedell and David J. Hosken are in the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK.,

    Nina Wedell & David J. Hosken

Authors
  1. Nina Wedell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David J. Hosken
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nina Wedell or David J. Hosken.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wedell, N., Hosken, D. Three billion years of research and development. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0035 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0035

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0035

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing