Several authors have suggested that
the second law works against evolution. While this is certainly true for chemical
evolution and hence the origin of life, the second law does not prevent existing
biological systems from evolving.
If anything the contrary is true. Evolution is possible because life
does not seem to be able to copy its DNA without making an occasional mistake. If DNA was
replicated faithfully in every generation, then chance would never create new useful
information, and natural selection would never have the opportunity to preserve anything
new.
The second law is often stated as the disorder of the universe must
always increase. This statement is not true, because entropy is a measure of uncertainty
not disorder. Several authors have used the entropy as disorder definition, to justify the
conflict between the second law and evolution. Since life is not disordered, it is
possible to see the conflict when entropy is defined in this way. Nevertheless, entropy
and disorder are not the same.
The second law stipulates that the uncertainty of the universe will
increase with time. This uncertainty is reflected in all physical systems. Mutations
increase uncertainty. Thus, changes to existing genes and proteins are fully expected and
consistent with the second law.
The direction toward increasing complexity that life displays with time
may be attributed to the preserving power of natural selection. If chance creates useful
information that confers a selective advantage, then natural selection will preserve it.
This process has nothing to do with the second law, and authors who suggest that the
second law and evolution are somehow mutually exclusive do not understand the nature of
entropy.
References:
1) Morowitz, Energy Flow in Biology, Ox Bow Press, 1979.
2)Brillouin, Science and Information Theory, 1956.
3) Prigogine, Stengers, Order Out of Chaos, Bantam Books, 1984.
4) Kauffman, At Home in The Universe, Oxford University Press, 1995.
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