When statistical physics meets with evolution: Insights into the complex adaptivity to Creation's main stimuli -- sex and food

Note: Special Colloquium
Speaker: Laurent Seuront, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia; South Australian Research and Development Institute, West Beach, Australia

When: December 8, 2009 (Tue), 03:30PM to 04:30PM (add to my calendar)
Location: SCI 107
Hosted by: H. Eugene Stanley
View the poster for this event.

This event is part of the Physics Department Colloquia Series.

Abstract:

Animals live in spatially and temporally complex, structured environments. Their waking hours are consumed by searching for food, hosts and mates, all the while seeking to avoid predators. We will see how statistical physics can provide new insights into the origins of animal behavior, through the interplay with the complexity of both abiotic and biotic patterns, and an assessment of the differences between innate and acquired behavior. We will illustrate these concepts by discussing the behavioral flexibility of marine invertebrate and to the trade-offs between two of the Creation’s main stimuli: sex and food.

Professor Seuront is author of the 2010 book {\it Fractals &
Multifractals in Ecology and Aquatic Science}.