On Monday, April 1 at 7 p.m. at the CSIC House of Science (C/ Batllia 1, València) a round table will take place on the occasion of the publication of the book “Viruses as complex adaptive Systems” (Princeton University Press, 2019) by Ricard Solé and Santiago F. Elena.

Many viruses are harmful parasites that threaten us, but their crucial role in the evolution of life and the functioning of ecosystems cannot be denied. The emergence of new pathogenic viruses is one of the manifestations of their extraordinary adaptive capacity. Mathematical models help to understand viruses as complex evolving systems and draw analogies with the evolution of other replicative systems such as computer viruses, cancer or language. The book by Ricard Solé and Santiago Elena addresses the complexity of apparently simple biological systems, such as viruses, from this theoretical perspective that connects biology and mathematics. The authors will present this approach in an informative way in a debate aimed at the general public that will be moderated by Juli Peretó.

Ricard Solé is an ICREA research professor at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra joint center, and Santiago F. Elena is a CSIC research professor at the Institut de Biologia Integrativa de Sistemes I2SysBio, joint center CSIC-Universitat de València. Both are associate professors at the Santa Fe Institute in whose book they authored has just appeared in a series of monographs on complexity published by Princeton University Press. On the other hand, Juli Peretó is a professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Valencia and vice-director of I2SysBio.

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13306.html