Since evolutionary biologists, George Williams, Wadton Hamilton, and Richard Daczim, have recognized evolutionary biologists have realized that natural selection does not generally work for the benefit of the community, but for lower-level units such as the individual, the cell, even the gene. One of the fundamental problems of biology is: what keeps the competition between these different levels of natural selection from destroying the common interests that can be obtained from cooperation? In this volume twelve prominent scientists explore this question and present a comprehensive survey of current theoretical and experimental research in evolutionary biology.

Recent studies show that at many levels of biological regulation, mechanisms have evolved to prevent potential conflict with natural selection. In this book, Lorent Keller aims to bring together prominent researchers from all biological disciplines to identify these potential conflicts and discuss how to resolve them. This multi-level approach provides important insights into the evolution of life, as well as bridging the long-standing conceptual divide between molecular biologists and living organisms.

The chapters here follow a strict theoretical framework, giving the book a comprehensive and unique synergy for multi-author books. The contributors, in addition to the editor, are Charles Goodfray, Edward Allen Hare, Down M.

Kitchen, Eagburt Giles Lee, Jr., Catherine M. Leslieles, Richard E.

Michael Leonard Noni, Craig Packer, Andrew Pomiankowski, H. Kern Reeve, John Maynard Smith, and Eors Szathmary..