biology

Evolution & Population Genetics

The mechanisms that drive the diversity of life — natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and the mathematics of populations.

evolutionnatural selectiongeneticspopulation geneticsdriftLotka-Volterra

Evolution by natural selection, first described by Charles Darwin in 1859, is the most powerful explanatory framework in all of biology. But Darwin lacked the mathematical tools to make his theory precise. That changed in the early 20th century when Ronald Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright created population genetics — the mathematical theory of evolution.

Population genetics reveals that evolution is driven by four forces: natural selection (differential survival and reproduction), genetic drift (random fluctuations in small populations), mutation (the source of all new variation), and gene flow (migration between populations). The interplay of these forces determines the genetic composition of every population on Earth.

These simulations let you manipulate the fundamental parameters of evolution and watch populations change in real time. See how natural selection drives alleles to fixation, how drift overwhelms selection in small populations, how predator and prey oscillate eternally, and how the multi-hit model explains why cancer is a disease of aging.

4 interactive simulations

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Genetic Drift Simulator

Wright-Fisher model demonstrating how random sampling in finite populations causes allele frequencies to fluctuate, leading to fixation or loss

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Mutation Accumulation & Cancer Risk Simulator

Armitage-Doll multi-hit model showing how somatic mutations accumulate with age and drive cancer incidence, with animated DNA visualization

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Natural Selection Simulator

Interactive Hardy-Weinberg selection model showing how fitness differences drive allele frequency changes across generations

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Predator-Prey Dynamics Simulator

Lotka-Volterra model showing oscillating population dynamics between predator and prey species with phase portrait visualization