History
Coalescent theory is a natural extension of the more classical population genetics concept of neutral evolution and is an approximation to the Fisher-Wright (or Wright-Fisher) model for large populations. It was ‘discovered’ independently by several researchers in the 1980s, but the definitive formalisation is attributed to Kingman. Major contributions to the development of coalescent theory have been made by Peter Donnelly, Robert Griffiths, Richard R Hudson and Simon Tavaré. This has included incorporating variations in population size, recombination and selection. In 1999 Jim Pitman and Serik Sagitov independently introduced coalescent processes with multiple collisions of ancestral lineages. Shortly later the full class of exchangeable coalescent processes with simultaneous multiple mergers of ancestral lineages was discovered by Martin Möhle, Serik Sagitov and Jason Schweinsberg.
Read more about this topic: Coalescent Theory
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“To summarize the contentions of this paper then. Firstly, the phrase ‘the meaning of a word’ is a spurious phrase. Secondly and consequently, a re-examination is needed of phrases like the two which I discuss, ‘being a part of the meaning of’ and ‘having the same meaning.’ On these matters, dogmatists require prodding: although history indeed suggests that it may sometimes be better to let sleeping dogmatists lie.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)