A quantum-theoretical approach to the phenomenon of directed mutations in bacteria

Abstract

The Darwinian paradigm of biological evolution is based on the separability of the variation and selection processes. As a result, the population thinking had always been an integral part of the Darwinian approach. I propose an alternative scheme of biological adaptation. It is based on appreciation of limits of what we can observe considering an individual biological object. This leads to a possibility for the adaptation process to occur on the level of a single object, as a 'selection among virtual states of the organism'. I discuss the application of this idea to the phenomenon of adaptive mutations in bacteria.