Graduation Year
2023
Date of Submission
12-2022
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Award
Best Senior Thesis in Physical Sciences
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Physics
Reader 1
Sarah Marzen
Reader 2
Adam Landsberg
Abstract
Populations of organisms must acquire information about the environment to survive. It is possible that they have shaped their responses to the environment so as to maximize that information, as that may lead to increases in fitness. We test that hypothesis here in the context of the Wright-Fisher model by first finding the maximal amount of information that can be acquired about the environment by evolutionary processes-- at least 2 bits per allele-- and then by finding how the organisms would have shaped their response so as to maximize the information transfer. We compare how organisms could have shaped their response to how they have appeared to shape their response and find a lack of a match.
Recommended Citation
Soriano De Jesus, Jonathan Gumecindo and Marzen, Sarah, "The information about the environment acquired by evolution" (2023). CMC Senior Theses. 3105.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3105
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
