P. Ball\u00a0Nature <\/i>560<\/b>, 548\u2013550; 2018<\/a>) attempted to lay conceptual foundations for such a theory. Yet, more than 70 years and two generations of physicists later, researchers still ponder whether the answers lie in unknown physics. No one has led the charge on these questions quite like Stuart Kauffman.<\/p>\nIn the 1980s and 1990s, Kauffman \u2014 a complex-systems researcher \u2014 developed a highly influential theory for life\u2019s origins, based on molecules that reproduce only collectively, called autocatalytic sets. He posited that if a chemical soup of polymers was sufficiently diverse, these sets would emerge spontaneously as a phase transition \u2014 that is, a significant change in state or function, akin to the shift from solid to liquid. The sets function holistically, mutually catalysing the formation of all their molecular members. (His inspiration was advances in the mathematics of networks by Paul Erd\u0151s and Alfr\u00e9d R\u00e9nyi, who had demonstrated how phase transitions occur in random networks as connectivity is increased.) Now, in\u00a0A World Beyond Physics<\/i>, Kauffman elaborates.<\/p>\n
His key insight is motivated by what he calls \u201cthe nonergodic world\u201d \u2014 that of objects more complex than atoms. Most atoms are simple, so all their possible states can exist over a reasonable period of time. Once they start interacting to form molecules, the number of possible states becomes mind-bogglingly massive. Only a tiny number of proteins that are modestly complex \u2014 say, 200 amino acids long \u2014 have emerged over the entire history of the Universe. Generating all 20020<\/sup>\u00a0of the possibilities would take aeons. Given such limitations, how does what does exist ever come into being?<\/p>\nThis is where Kauffman expands on his autocatalytic-sets theory, introducing concepts such as closure, in which processes are linked so that each drives the next in a closed cycle. He posits that autocatalysing sets (of RNA, peptides or both) encapsulated in a sphere of lipid molecules could form self-reproducing protocells. And he speculates that these protocells could evolve. Thus, each new biological innovation begets a new functional niche fostering yet more innovation. You cannot predict what will exist, he argues, because the function of everything biology generates will depend on what came before, and what other things exist now, with an ever-expanding set of what is possible next.<\/p>\n
Because of this, Kauffman provocatively concludes, there is no mathematical law that could describe the evolving diversity and abundance of life in the biosphere. He writes: \u201cwe do not know the relevant variables prior to their emergence in evolution.\u201d At best, he argues, any \u2018laws of life\u2019 that do exist will describe statistical distributions of aspects of that evolution. For instance, they might predict the distribution of extinctions. Life\u2019s emergence might rest on the foundations of physics, \u201cbut it is not derivable from them\u201d, Kauffman argues.<\/p>\n
If biology cannot be reduced to physics, however, is it \u201cbeyond physics\u201d, as Kauffman claims? This is an interesting time to work on life\u2019s origins: there is intensive debate in the field about whether current physics is adequate, or whether new principles are necessary. Will a deep understanding of life ultimately come from comprehending how form and function arise from flows of information? Will life be understood only as a planetary-scale process, fundamentally linked to exoplanet sciences? Or will merging theory and experiment lead to new approaches to creating artificial life? Those approaches are being developed as an international effort, which coalesced in the 2015 conference Re-Conceptualizing the Origins of Life, drawing researchers from institutions including the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Arizona State University in Tempe.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Within, not beyond<\/b><\/p>\n
I agree with Kauffman that life cannot be explained by our current laws of physics, but dispute his argument that the explanation is \u2018beyond\u2019 physics. The distinction might be semantic, but it is important.<\/p>\n
Physics has already grown far beyond simply describing aspects of reality, such as the very big (astronomy, cosmology), the very small (quantum systems, particle physics) or the human-sized (mechanics, as studied by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton). Interesting work is emerging from the study of complexity in areas such as economics, electronics, climate physics, the science of societies and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.<\/p>\n
Such cross-disciplinary advances suggest that physics itself should not be defined merely by systems it has described in the past. It is a way to view the world, one that values the most abstract, fundamental and unifying descriptions of reality, from atoms to the Universe.<\/p>\n
Within that span is biological and technological complexity in phenomena from humans to cities. So far, this has been the hardest area in which to gain traction from first-principles approaches, because of the density of interactions across components and scales. The question of whether there is a physics of life demands that we consider that all examples of life might at their core be part of the same fundamental phenomenon; otherwise, \u2018life\u2019 is not an objective property, but a collection of special cases. This unified view seems to be in line with what Kauffman is after. But it suggests that an explanation might demand new physics.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Statistical power<\/b><\/p>\n
The unifying thread that explains life could be something statistical, as Kauffman proposes, and still have \u2018law-like\u2019 properties. After all, some physical laws are statistical by nature, such as the second law of thermodynamics.<\/p>\n
But conventional approaches to life\u2019s origins \u2014 such as the \u2018RNA world\u2019 and other genetics-first models \u2014 cannot yet be formulated in this way. That is because they make many assumptions on the basis of properties that might be unique to the chemistry of life on Earth, such as that RNA is necessary to life\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n
The emerging areas of \u2018messy chemistry\u2019 and artificial-life approaches to origins research start from bottom-up chemical mixtures with minimal assumptions about what emerging life might look like. (The chemist Lee Cronin, for example, experiments on self-assembly and self-organization in large molecules such as metal oxides.) In this sense, the field is attempting to take an ensemble approach, and could provide new paths for developing theories on the universal principles bridging non-organic matter and life. It might inspire the next conceptual leap.<\/p>\n
In a way that only he can, Kauffman has asked the questions we need to solve the mystery of life and its origins. But there is much work for the next generation to do to answer them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nature<\/span>\u00a0569<\/strong>, 36-38 (2019)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
doi: 10.1038\/d41586-019-01318-z<\/div>\n
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(\uc6d0\ubb38: \uc5ec\uae30\ub97c \ud074\ub9ad\ud558\uc138\uc694~)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stuart Kauffman\u2019s provocative take on emergence and evolution energizes Sara Imari Walker. An artist\u2019s impression of early \u2018protocells\u2019 proliferating.Credit: Henning Dalhoff\/Science 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