Abstract
We give an overview of stochastic models of evolution that have found applications in genetics, ecology and linguistics for an audience of non-specialists, especially statistical physicists. In particular, we focus mostly on neutral models in which no intrinsic advantage is ascribed to a particular type of the variable unit, for example a gene, appearing in the theory. In many cases these models are exactly solvable and furthermore go some way to describing observed features of genetic, ecological and linguistic systems.
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