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Related: About this forumScientist discovers new thermodynamic theory for origin of life.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122Englands theory is meant to underlie, rather than replace, Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection, which provides a powerful description of life at the level of genes and populations. I am certainly not saying that Darwinian ideas are wrong, he explained. On the contrary, I am just saying that from the perspective of the physics, you might call Darwinian evolution a special case of a more general phenomenon.
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Others, such as Eugene Shakhnovich, a professor of chemistry, chemical biology and biophysics at Harvard University, are not convinced. Jeremys ideas are interesting and potentially promising, but at this point are extremely speculative, especially as applied to life phenomena, Shakhnovich said.
Englands theoretical results are generally considered valid. It is his interpretation that his formula represents the driving force behind a class of phenomena in nature that includes life that remains unproven. But already, there are ideas about how to test that interpretation in the lab.
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Although entropy must increase over time in an isolated or closed system, an open system can keep its entropy low that is, divide energy unevenly among its atoms by greatly increasing the entropy of its surroundings.
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Life does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, but until recently, physicists were unable to use thermodynamics to explain why it should arise in the first place.
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Jarzynski and Crooks showed that the entropy produced by a thermodynamic process, such as the cooling of a cup of coffee, corresponds to a simple ratio: the probability that the atoms will undergo that process divided by their probability of undergoing the reverse process (that is, spontaneously interacting in such a way that the coffee warms up). As entropy production increases, so does this ratio: A systems behavior becomes more and more irreversible. The simple yet rigorous formula could in principle be applied to any thermodynamic process, no matter how fast or far from equilibrium.
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Using Jarzynski and Crooks formulation, he derived a generalization of the second law of thermodynamics that holds for systems of particles with certain characteristics: The systems are strongly driven by an external energy source such as an electromagnetic wave, and they can dump heat into a surrounding bath. This class of systems includes all living things. England then determined how such systems tend to evolve over time as they increase their irreversibility. We can show very simply from the formula that the more likely evolutionary outcomes are going to be the ones that absorbed and dissipated more energy from the environments external drives on the way to getting there,
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Self-replication (or reproduction, in biological terms), the process that drives the evolution of life on Earth, is one such mechanism by which a system might dissipate an increasing amount of energy over time.
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The chemistry of the primordial soup, random mutations, geography, catastrophic events and countless other factors have contributed to the fine details of Earths diverse flora and fauna. But according to Englands theory, the underlying principle driving the whole process is dissipation-driven adaptation of matter.
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Scientists have already observed self-replication in nonliving systems.
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Englands bold idea will likely face close scrutiny in the coming years. He is currently running computer simulations to test his theory that systems of particles adapt their structures to become better at dissipating energy. The next step will be to run experiments on living systems.
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If Englands approach stands up to more testing, it could further liberate biologists from seeking a Darwinian explanation for every adaptation and allow them to think more generally in terms of dissipation-driven organization. They might find, for example, that the reason that an organism shows characteristic X rather than Y may not be because X is more fit than Y, but because physical constraints make it easier for X to evolve than for Y to evolve, Louis said.
Who wants to tell the Intelligent Design-people that their thermodynamic calculations are wrong?
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Scientist discovers new thermodynamic theory for origin of life. (Original Post)
DetlefK
Jan 2019
OP
What can you possibly mean by "contradiction" ?? There is none there, even if you choose to see one.
eppur_se_muova
Jan 2019
#3
Aussie105
(5,412 posts)1. Not wrong, just simplistic
Both evolutionary scientists and Intelligent Design followers struggle with the contradiction that Life presents.
How can living things become more organised, more complex, all by themselves, on both an evolutionary time scale, and the lifespan of a single individual, while the most common observation in the non living world is that things move towards chaos and randomness?
Intelligent Design people simply say 'God does that', and leave it there, while Scientists aren't happy with this superficial explanation, and want to work out why and how life came about.
Interesting read, hope the concept is developed further. Definitely deserves some in depth computer modelling.
eppur_se_muova
(36,274 posts)3. What can you possibly mean by "contradiction" ?? There is none there, even if you choose to see one.
The whole explanation is in this line in the OP:
Although entropy must increase over time in an isolated or closed system, an open system can keep its entropy low that is, divide energy unevenly among its atoms by greatly increasing the entropy of its surroundings.
This provides pretty much the basic definition of life -- living systems are those that systematically function as entropy "refrigators", pumping entropy out of their own systems into their environment. Nothings forbids such a system in principle, so why shouldn't it happen ? Once such a system gets going, it's in its very nature to continue/propagate.
Anyone who thinks life is in contradiction with thermodynamics doesn't understand even basic thermodynamics. You have to read the entirety of the Third Law -- it applies to closed systems, and places no direct restrictions on open systems. Living organisms -- and the whole planet -- are open systems, so do not contradict the Third Law. No contradiction, no big mystery. Yes, life is amazing, but not magical.
N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,755 posts)2. Had to happen...
Sooner or later.