Postdoctoral Research Fellow
raboyle@email.arizona.edu
Ph: 520-626-1727
BSW 121
CV
BA Biological Sciences, Oxford 2002.
MRes Mathematical Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, 2004.
PhD Earth System Modelling, University of East Anglia, 2008.
Interests
- Levels of selection
- Evolvability
- Complexity begets stability (or not)
- Evolutionary origin of physiology
- Origin of life and quantifying the possibility of astrobiology
- Earth system science and geochemistry
- Definitions of life
I have recently moved to the University of Arizona for a postdoctoral position in the Masel group after completing my PhD in the UK. I am currently working on the accumulation of deleterious cryptic genetic variation in relation to the likelihood of it gaining adaptive value in variable environments. I also hope to develop empirically a link that I have suggested between evolutionary transitions in levels of selection and equivalent transitions in physiological robustness. I am interested in metrics of ecological stability, and have a keen interest in the importance of the presence of life for homeostatic features of the Earth’s climate system; embodied by the Gaia hypothesis. I have published work on altruism in extreme environments, and think that it is probable that the proliferation of the Ediacaran macrobiota (with implications for the subsequent cambrian explosion) , was directly driven by the planetary-scale glaciations that happened at this time. In general I think that useful perspectives on evolutionary trade-offs can be gained from looking to the dynamics of the abiotic environment, and I like ideas that link the physiological and cybernetic features of life (homeostasis, metabolism, entropy production etc) with the information-based properties (heritable variation causing differential survival) that are pre-requisites for evolutionary change.
Publications
“Fluctuation in the physical environment as a mechanism for reinforcing evolutionary transitions” Boyle, R.A. & Lenton, T.M. 2006. Journal of theoretical Biology 242. 832-843
“Neoproterozoic “snowball Earth” glaciations and the evolution of altruism” Boyle, R.A. , Lenton, T.M. & Williams, H.T.P. 2007. Geobiology 5(4). 337-349.
“Theoretical feedbacks between Neoproterozoic glaciations and eukaryotic evolution” Boyle, R.A. 2008. Phd Thesis. University of East Anglia, UK.
(Also, a “fun” popular press article: “The white daisy that likes it cold” Boyle, R.A. & Williamson, M.S.W. 2006 Gaia circular, 2006, 16-19)