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.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Better living through physics

Nature volume 467, page 661 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

A Comment to this article was published on 06 October 2010

Nowak and colleagues' explanation of the evolution of altruism (Nature 466, 1057–1062; 2010) in terms of individual-level selection might be reconciled with the views of their kin-selection opponents by striking an analogy with statistical mechanical and thermodynamic treatments in physics.

Statistical mechanics provides the microscopic basis for the macroscopic variables in thermodynamics, which is an equilibrium theory treating aggregate variables. As with thermodynamics, traditional multilevel selection theory is based on equilibrium solutions operating on nominal, aggregate variables. In the Hamilton kin-selection framework, variables correspond to the terms benefit, cost and relatedness. But because that treatment is not fundamentally mechanistic, it is often unclear what the units of these variables are, and how best to measure them.

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

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

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Santa Fe Institute, USA

    David C. Krakauer & Jessica C. Flack

Authors
  1. David C. Krakauer
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jessica C. Flack
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

See Comment, p.653

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Krakauer, D., Flack, J. Better living through physics. Nature 467, 661 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/467661a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/467661a

This article is cited by

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