After getting a PhD in physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Michael Roth was inspired by Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker and the study of evolution became a nearly lifelong interest for him. Following a postdoc at Fermilab, he joined The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) where he served in many scientific leadership roles until retirement. He has major publications in several fields including theoretical physics, geophysics, neural networks (aka deep learning), biophysics, and instrumentation. He was a Co-Chairman for several conferences. He has also served as a JHUAPL group supervisor and as the Book Review Editor and Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. After retirement from JHUAPL, he devoted his time to his longtime interest in evolution.

1. Fundamentals Chapter 2. Fertility 3. Scavengers 4. Predators 5. Arms Races 6. Trophic Cascades 7. Parasites and Pathogens 8. Serengeti 9. Summary Discussion Appendix A. Density-Dependent Regulation Appendix B. Selection Theorem Proofs