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:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)