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Thanks CTOnews.com netizen Hua Ke high achiever's clue delivery! This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF, article: Merlin

How did all kinds of life on earth come from? Presumably many people will say "evolved from ancient creatures". There is some truth in saying so. In 1859, Darwin published the Origin of species, which proposed his theory of evolution to describe how life developed and grew on Earth. To put it simply, "natural selection and survival of the fittest" is the law of the operation of all life. Recently, however, scientists have discovered that Darwin was actually "wrong".

To say that Darwin is "wrong" does not mean that Darwin's theory of evolution is wrong, but that evolution applies not only to the world of life, but also to everything in the universe. In other words, evolution is the law by which the whole universe works.

Seeing this, partners may wonder: in order to survive and develop, life will produce all kinds of variation, and the variation that is more adapted to the environment will be preserved, which is the evolution of life. Inanimate things have no life, there is no survival, can they evolve in order to better "survive"? What gives them this sense of "living"?

Inanimate matter can also evolve? Darwin's theory of evolution advocates "natural selection and survival of the fittest". In other words, the ultimate goal of species evolution is to survive.

Recently, the research of a number of scientists has expanded the scope of application of evolution theory. They believe that whether the system is living or inanimate, if there is a "mutation", and the system works properly, and its function has been improved, then it can be said that the system has "evolved" and passed "natural selection". In other words, everything in the universe, including planets, stars, atoms and minerals, can evolve to make itself more adaptable to the environment.

Scientists call their new conclusion the Law of increased functional Information (Law of Increasing Functional Information), which is regarded as the "missing law of nature" in the universe. The law states that natural systems in the universe will evolve into more model, diversity and complexity. Just like life on earth, it also evolves from simple life forms to complex and diverse life forms.

Similar to the evolution of living things through natural selection, the law states that the evolution of all things in the universe also goes through "functional selection". The word function choice may be strange and difficult for us to understand. If "survival" is regarded as a "function", then biological evolution is actually the choice of the function of survival to all kinds of biological variation. By the same token, the evolution of everything in the universe is a function that selects all natural systems.

Here, scientists believe that there are three basic functions, namely, stability, dynamic persistence and novelty. Stability refers to the stable arrangement of the basic particles that make up matter, which allows the natural system to exist; the dynamic system with continuous energy supply is the so-called dynamic persistence; and novelty, as its name implies, is what we call "variation". Natural systems produce new functions, new behaviors and new characteristics.

It is based on the choice of these functions that drives the evolution and development of all things in the universe and creates today's diverse and complex universe.

Does the missing Law of Nature really apply to everything in the universe? The proposal of the law is summarized by scientists based on theoretical analysis and comprehensive analysis of previous studies. Some people may say that such a theory will be divorced from reality. Is this really how our universe works?

We can look at a few examples. First of all, in the world of life, inanimate molecules synthesize cells, single-celled life clusters, differentiate into tissues and organs, and form multicellular organisms with a mechanism that we don't know yet. Multicellular organisms use different evolutionary routes to develop autotrophic plants, heterotrophic animals, and saprophytic fungi, thus making life on Earth more diverse.

The evolution of the life world is needless to say. Darwin discovered such a law two or three hundred years ago. What about the inanimate world? The same is true of stars all over the sky. Scientists point out that early stars contained only two main elements, hydrogen and helium, and then early stars made about 20 heavier chemical elements from hydrogen and helium, gradually evolving the next generation of stars. the next generation of stars use these elements to make more than 100 new elements. The stars are more diverse.

A small picture of the starry sky in the constellation Formula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. These stars in the picture may be the first stars to form after the Big Bang, and they contain only hydrogen and helium. (photo source: NASA) this is true of stars, and so are the planets around stars. When it comes to the evolution of planets, it is essentially the evolution of minerals. The earliest minerals in the universe were 20 self-exploding elements that cooled, solidified and gathered the atmosphere to form planets. For hundreds of millions of years, through continuous condensation, melting, crystallization, differentiation, different temperature and pressure, and the influence of life activities, nearly 6000 kinds of minerals have been evolved from the reconfiguration and combination of these 20 kinds of minerals.

All the elements in the periodic table and their isotopes appear in the universe through the evolution of minerals. (photo Source: Pexels) the introduction of this new theory not only allows us to understand the past, but also points out a clearer direction for future research. Stuart Kaufman of the Seattle Institute of Systems Biology said that the new discovery is extensive and groundbreaking. Scientists have begun to explore the fundamental issues of the evolution of the universe, and the new conclusions are not empty.

References:

On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems | PNAS

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