Generating theory: foundational approaches and methods

New Theory -- the Black Queen Hypothesis

In modern science, evolution is one of the basic templates to help understand the biology and ecology of an organism. The theory was put forth in the late 19th century by Charles Darwin and others. It describes the change in inherited traits of a population through a process called natural selection. This process allows only the strongest, most robust and useful traits to perpetuate because they are the most adapted to the organism's environment. Evolution, then, is the product of two opposing forces: variation in traits and mutation. Thus, most of evolutionary theory surrounds the notion that living organisms evolve by adding genes (adaptations to the environment) rather than discarding them (Futuyma, 2005).

Evolution was a dramatic, and controversial, theory. It convinces most of the scientific community that the world was continually evolving, not static, and most certainly not just a few thousand years old as indicated in the Christian Bible. This was a huge paradigm shift -- it turned religion and philosophy around to the point that even in the 20th and 21st centuries the idea is often considered so dangerous that the teaching of evolution should be regulated. Some see this explanation of life as the central organizing force that allows for complexity. Darwin's natural selection is such a process that accounts for evolution to the point of both human minds and societies. Philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, in his 1995 book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, says that:

Charles Darwin's fundamental idea has inspired intense reactions ranging from ferocious condemnation to ecstatic allegiance, sometimes tantamount to religious zeal. Darwin's theory has been abused and misrepresented by friend and foe alike. It has been misappropriated to lend scientific respectability to appalling political and social doctrines. It has been pilloried in caricature by opponents, some of whom would have it compete in our children's schools with 'creation science,' a pathetic hodgepodge of pious pseudo-science. Almost no one is indifferent to Darwin, and no one should be (Dennett, 2005, 17-18).

Given that evolution is a relatively new scientific theory, we now see that a brand-new hypothesis, introduced in 2012, called the Black Queen Hypothesis, has the potential to redefine the manner in which evolutionary theory is understood. Evolution assumes that organisms are driven towards greater complexity -- however, looking at many microbes, we now find that some trend towards decreasing complexity and have a net loss of complexity relative to their ancestors -- also based on environmental pressures (Morris, et.al., 2012). The entire basis of this new theory comes from literally thousands of articles and research ranging from anthropological/sociological interpretations of Darwinism to numerous scientific studies on the topic (Lane, 2010). Other theoretical interpretations that help propel The Black Queen use the idea that rather than evolution being a smooth and linear process, it happens in quick bursts, then is relative stable for a time to allow the organism to adapt to the changes, with a repeat in the cycle. These bursts of creativity, knowledge and change require a set of equilibrium (the valleys between the peaks) -- otherwise, species, ideas and adaptations would occur too rapidly for any organism to maintain survival (Gould, 2007).