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The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere

Evolutionary theory suggests that the origin, persistence, and evolution of biology is driven by the “natural selection” of characteristics improving the differential reproductive success of the organism in the given environment. The theory, however, lacks physical foundation, and, therefore, at bes...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Michaelian, Karo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10378079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37510006
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e25071059
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author Michaelian, Karo
author_facet Michaelian, Karo
author_sort Michaelian, Karo
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description Evolutionary theory suggests that the origin, persistence, and evolution of biology is driven by the “natural selection” of characteristics improving the differential reproductive success of the organism in the given environment. The theory, however, lacks physical foundation, and, therefore, at best, can only be considered a heuristic narrative, of some utility for assimilating the biological and paleontological data at the level of the organism. On deeper analysis, it becomes apparent that this narrative is plagued with problems and paradoxes. Alternatively, non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory, derived from physical law, provides a physical foundation for describing material interaction with its environment at all scales. Here we describe a “natural thermodynamic selection” of characteristics of structures (or processes), based stochastically on increases in the global rate of dissipation of the prevailing solar spectrum. Different mechanisms of thermodynamic selection are delineated for the different biotic-abiotic levels, from the molecular level at the origin of life, up to the level of the present biosphere with non-linear coupling of biotic and abiotic processes. At the levels of the organism and the biosphere, the non-equilibrium thermodynamic description of evolution resembles, respectively, the Darwinian and Gaia descriptions, although the underlying mechanisms and the objective function of selection are fundamentally very different.
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spelling pubmed-103780792023-07-29 The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere Michaelian, Karo Entropy (Basel) Article Evolutionary theory suggests that the origin, persistence, and evolution of biology is driven by the “natural selection” of characteristics improving the differential reproductive success of the organism in the given environment. The theory, however, lacks physical foundation, and, therefore, at best, can only be considered a heuristic narrative, of some utility for assimilating the biological and paleontological data at the level of the organism. On deeper analysis, it becomes apparent that this narrative is plagued with problems and paradoxes. Alternatively, non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory, derived from physical law, provides a physical foundation for describing material interaction with its environment at all scales. Here we describe a “natural thermodynamic selection” of characteristics of structures (or processes), based stochastically on increases in the global rate of dissipation of the prevailing solar spectrum. Different mechanisms of thermodynamic selection are delineated for the different biotic-abiotic levels, from the molecular level at the origin of life, up to the level of the present biosphere with non-linear coupling of biotic and abiotic processes. At the levels of the organism and the biosphere, the non-equilibrium thermodynamic description of evolution resembles, respectively, the Darwinian and Gaia descriptions, although the underlying mechanisms and the objective function of selection are fundamentally very different. MDPI 2023-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10378079/ /pubmed/37510006 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e25071059 Text en © 2023 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Michaelian, Karo
The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere
title The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere
title_full The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere
title_fullStr The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere
title_full_unstemmed The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere
title_short The Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Natural Selection: From Molecules to the Biosphere
title_sort non-equilibrium thermodynamics of natural selection: from molecules to the biosphere
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10378079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37510006
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e25071059
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