A recent paper by Jeremy England discusses the potential for life to be generated through the principle of entropy. England's research suggests that under certain conditions, systems of particles driven by external energy sources tend to evolve in ways that maximize energy dissipation, a process that can lead to self-organization and self-replication. This concept, known as dissipation-driven adaptation, implies that life can emerge from non-living matter as these systems adapt to their environments by increasing their energy absorption and dissipation.
England's work builds on the second law of thermodynamics and the fluctuation theorems developed by physicists Chris Jarzynski and Gavin Crooks. These theorems quantify the likelihood of certain physical processes happening over their reverse processes, providing a framework to study how systems evolve far from equilibrium. The research indicates that self-replicating systems, such as RNA molecules, dissipate energy in a way that aligns with this theory, suggesting that the emergence of life might be an inevitable outcome of entropy maximization under specific conditions (Quanta Magazine) (Quanta Magazine).