Iowa State University
Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology
1210 Molecular Biology Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3260
Phone: 515-294-7322
Fax: 515-294-6755
Email:
John Mayfield
Professor
Dr. Mayfield, Professor, received his B.S. in Physics from the College of Wooster (Ohio), and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Pittsburg. After various faculty positions at the California Institute of Technology, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the Harvard University Biological Laboratories, Dr. Mayfield joined Iowa State University in 1977. He served terms as Chair of the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Interdepartmental Graduate Major, and as the Chair of the Interdepartmental Genetics Major. Dr. Mayfield is currently an Associate Dean in the Graduate College.
Research Description
The goal of my research is development of a generalized theory of evolution that relates naturally and easily to fundamental mathematical and physical principles. I have come to accept that evolution should not be seen not so much as a biological phenomenon as a computational one. Various processes including biological evolution, plant and animal breeding, antibody maturation, and evolutionary and genetic algorithms can all be described as iterated probabilistic computations. When defined as an IPCS, evolution explains how purposefully complex objects everywhere are possible. This is because purposefully complex objects are always based on information, usually in the form of instructions. Instructions are used to create configurations of matter that are far too improbable to occur without specification. Fundamentally, the evolutional cycle extracts information from random choices accumulating information pertinent to whatever selection criteria are in play. All but the simplest of instructions owe their existence to some process that carries out an IPCS computation. Because of this, all truly complex objects can be understood in terms of this computational strategy.
Jeonga Kim, Zeng yu Sha, and John E. Mayfield. 2000. Regulation of Brucella abortus catalase. Infect. And Immun. 68:3861-3866.
Jeonga Kim and John Mayfield. 2000. Identification of Brucella abortus OxyR and Its Rolfe in Control of Catalase Expression. J. Bacterol. 182: 5631-5633.
Dan Ashlock and John E. Mayfield. 1998. Acquisition of General Adaptive Features by Evolution. In, Evolutionary Programming VII. VW. Porto, N. Saravanan, D. Waagen, and AE. Eiben eds. Springer, Berlin. Pp 75-84 .
Jeonga Kim and John E. Mayfield. 1997. Brucella abortus arginase and ornithine cyclodeaminase genes are similar to Ti plasmid arginase and ornithine cyclodeaminase. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1354: 55-57.
John E. Mayfield and Mel Duvall. 1996. Anomalous phylogenies based on bacterial catalase gene sequences. J. Molecular Evolution 42: 469-471.
