 Collins studied biology at The University of Sussex, where his tutor was the leading theoretical biologist John Maynard Smith.In 1975 Collins voiced to Maynard Smith the view that natural selection could not drive evolution because it always acted to reduce variation in favour of an optimum type for any environment, whereas the central story of evolution was that of increasing variation and complexity.Collins quoted Charles Darwin in "The Origin of Species" ("... unless profitable variations do occur, natural selection can do nothing.