Abstract
Theoretical population genetics is surely a most unusual subject. At times it appears to have little connection with the parent subject on which it must depend, namely observational and experimental genetics, living an almost inbred life of its own. It cannot claim a status analogous to that of theoretical physics to justify doing this: the latter subject depends on very precise observational data and very precise models, so that if at times it proceeds ahead of observational physics on its own, it is on the basis of quite firm foundations. Theoretical population genetics, on the other hand, rests on often vague and sometimes contradictory foundations and too inbred a development of the theory soon leads to irrelevancy. What should be the methods of progress in population genetics theory, and how should these methods change with changes in mainstream genetics?
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ewens, W.J. (1994). The Changing Role of Population Genetics Theory. In: Levin, S.A. (eds) Frontiers in Mathematical Biology. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, vol 100. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-50124-1_11
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