Annila Arto
Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Interface Focus. 2023 Apr 14;13(3):20220074. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2022.0074. eCollection 2023 Jun 6.
The prevalence of chirally pure biological polymers is often assumed to stem from some slight preference for one chiral form at the origin of life. Likewise, the predominance of matter over antimatter is presumed to follow from some subtle bias for matter at the dawn of the universe. However, rather than being imposed from the start, handedness standards in societies emerged to make things work. Since work is the universal measure of transferred energy, it is reasoned that standards at all scales and scopes emerge to consume free energy. Free energy minimization, equal to entropy maximization, turns out to be the second law of thermodynamics when derived from statistical physics of open systems. This many-body theory is based on the atomistic axiom that everything comprises the same fundamental elements known as quanta of action; hence, everything follows the same law. According to the thermodynamic principle, the flows of energy standard structures over less-fit functional forms to consume free energy in the least time. Thermodynamics making no distinction between animate and inanimate renders the question of life's handedness meaningless and deems the search for an intrinsic difference between matter and antimatter pointless.
手性纯的生物聚合物的普遍存在通常被认为源于生命起源时对一种手性形式的某种轻微偏好。同样,物质相对于反物质的优势被假定源于宇宙诞生时对物质的某种微妙偏向。然而,社会中的手性标准并非从一开始就被强加,而是为了使事物运转而出现的。由于功是能量转移的通用度量,因此可以推断,所有尺度和范围的标准都是为了消耗自由能而出现的。从开放系统的统计物理学推导出来时,自由能最小化(等同于熵最大化)结果就是热力学第二定律。这种多体理论基于原子论公理,即一切都由称为作用量子的相同基本元素组成;因此,一切都遵循相同的规律。根据热力学原理,能量流动倾向于更适合的功能形式而非不太适合的功能形式,以便在最短时间内消耗自由能。热力学对有生命和无生命不作区分,使得生命的手性问题毫无意义,并认为寻找物质与反物质之间的内在差异毫无意义。