Physical laws — such as the laws of motion, gravity, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics — codify the general behavior of varied macroscopic natural systems across space and time. In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cornell University’s Professor Jonathan Lunine, Dr. Robert Hazen of the Carnegie Institution for Science and their colleagues propose that an additional, hitherto-unarticulated law is required to characterize familiar macroscopic phenomena of our complex, evolving Universe. In essence, the new ‘law of increasing functional information’ states that complex natural systems evolve to states of greater patterning, diversity, and complexity. In other words, evolution is not limited to life on Earth, it also occurs in other massively complex systems, from planets and stars to atoms, minerals, and more.
Charles Darwin applied the theory of evolution to life on Earth, but not to other massively complex systems like planets, stars, atoms and minerals. Wong et al. identified a missing aspect of that theory that applies to essentially everything. Image credit: NASA.
“This was a true collaboration between scientists and philosophers to address one of the most profound mysteries of the cosmos: why do complex systems, including life, evolve toward greater functional information over time?” Professor Lunine said.
Natural laws related to forces and motion, gravity, electromagnetism, and energy, for example, were described more than 150 years ago.
The new work postulates a ‘law of increasing functional information,’ which states that a system will evolve ‘if many different configurations of the system undergo selection for one or more functions.’
The new law applies to systems that are formed from many different components, such as atoms, molecules or cells, that can be arranged and rearranged repeatedly, and are subject to natural processes that cause countless different arrangements to be formed — but in which only a small fraction of these configurations survive in a process called ‘selection for function.’
Regardless of whether the system is living or nonliving, when a novel configuration works well and function improves, evolution occurs.
In the case of biology, Charles Darwin equated function primarily with survival — the ability to live long enough to produce fertile offspring.
“Charles Darwin eloquently articulated the way plants and animals evolve by natural selection, with many variations and traits of individuals and many different configurations,” Dr. Hazen said.
“We contend that Darwinian theory is just a very special, very important case within a far larger natural phenomenon.”
“The notion that selection for function drives evolution applies equally to stars, atoms, minerals, and many other conceptually equivalent situations where many configurations are subjected to selective pressure.”
The new study expands that perspective, noting that at least three kinds of function occur in nature.
The most basic function is stability — stable arrangements of atoms or molecules are selected to continue.
Also chosen to persist are dynamic systems with ongoing supplies of energy.
The third and most interesting function according to the researchers is ‘novelty’ — the tendency of evolving systems to explore new configurations that sometimes lead to startling new behaviors or characteristics, like photosynthesis.
The same sort of evolution happens in the mineral kingdom. The earliest minerals represent particularly stable arrangements of atoms. Those primordial minerals provided foundations for the next generations of minerals, which participated in life’s origins.
The evolution of life and minerals are intertwined, as life uses minerals for shells, teeth, and bones.
In the case of stars, the paper notes that just two major elements — hydrogen and helium — formed the first stars shortly after the Big Bang.
Those earliest stars used hydrogen and helium to make about 20 heavier chemical elements.
And the next generation of stars built on that diversity to produce almost 100 more elements.
“The research has implications for the search for life in the cosmos,” Professor Lunine said.
“If increasing functionality of evolving physical and chemical systems is driven by a natural law, we might expect life to be a common outcome of planetary evolution.”
“In this new paper, we consider evolution in the broadest sense — change over time — which subsumes Darwinian evolution based upon the particulars of ‘descent with modification’,” said Carnegie Institution for Science’s Dr. Michael Wong.
“The Universe generates novel combinations of atoms, molecules, cells, etc. Those combinations that are stable and can go on to engender even more novelty will continue to evolve. This is what makes life the most striking example of evolution, but evolution is everywhere.”
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Michael L. Wong et al. 2023. On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems. PNAS 120 (43): e2310223120; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2310223120
