After reading R.A. Fisher's 1929 classic study, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, John Holland started ruminating on genetic algorithms that could evolve designs based on a set of criteria and constraints. In 1962, Holland published his first paper on "adaptive algorithms." Holland's invention spawned a growing population of applications across science and industry. Genetic algorithms and their relations, which fall under the umbrella term evolutionary computing, are being harnessed to optimize designs of all sorts. Genetic programs have duplicated many patented designs; and in January 2005, the US Patent Office granted the first patent to a genetically designed controller.