Tuck Adrian F
Retired Scientist, 3401 Arapahoe Avenue Unit 317, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
Life (Basel). 2023 Mar 31;13(4):917. doi: 10.3390/life13040917.
This review points out that three of the essential features of natural selection-competition for a finite resource, variation, and transmission of memory-occur in an extremely simple, thermalized molecular population, one of colliding "billiard balls" subject to an anisotropy, a directional flux of energetic molecules. The emergence of scaling behavior, scale invariance, in such systems is considered in the context of the emergence of complexity driven by Gibbs free energy, the origins of life, and known chemistries in planetary and astrophysical conditions. It is suggested that the thermodynamic formalism of statistical multifractality offers a parallel between the microscopic and macroscopic views of non-equilibrium systems and their evolution, different from, empirically determinable, and therefore complementing traditional definitions of entropy and its production in living systems. Further, the approach supports the existence of a bridge between microscopic and macroscopic scales, the missing mesoscopic scale. It is argued that natural selection consequently operates on all scales-whether or not life results will depend on both the initial and the evolving boundary conditions. That life alters the boundary conditions ensures nonlinearity and scale invariance. Evolution by natural selection will have taken place in Earth's fluid envelope; both air and water display scale invariance and are far from chemical equilibrium, a complex condition driven by the Gibbs free energy arising from the entropy difference between the incoming solar beam and the outgoing infrared radiation to the cold sink of space acting on the initial conditions within evolving boundary conditions. Symmetry breaking's role in the atmospheric state is discussed, particularly in regard to aerosol fission in the context of airborne bacteria and viruses in both current and prebiotic times. Over 4.4 billion years, the factors operating to support natural selection will have evolved along with the entire system from relative simplicity to the current complexity.
本综述指出，自然选择的三个基本特征——对有限资源的竞争、变异以及记忆传递——出现在一个极其简单的、热化的分子群体中，这是一个受各向异性（高能分子的定向通量）影响的相互碰撞的“台球”群体。在由吉布斯自由能驱动的复杂性出现、生命起源以及行星和天体物理条件下的已知化学过程的背景下，探讨了此类系统中尺度行为（尺度不变性）的出现。研究表明，统计多重分形的热力学形式体系在非平衡系统及其演化的微观和宏观观点之间建立了一种平行关系，这种关系不同于凭经验可确定的关系，因此补充了生命系统中熵及其产生的传统定义。此外，该方法支持微观和宏观尺度之间存在一座桥梁，即缺失的介观尺度。有人认为，自然选择因此在所有尺度上都起作用——生命是否会产生将取决于初始边界条件和不断演变的边界条件。生命改变边界条件确保了非线性和尺度不变性。通过自然选择的进化将在地球的流体包膜中发生；空气和水都表现出尺度不变性，且远离化学平衡，这种复杂状态是由入射太阳光束与射向太空冷汇的出射红外辐射之间的熵差所产生的吉布斯自由能驱动的，作用于不断演变的边界条件内的初始条件。讨论了对称性破缺在大气状态中的作用，特别是在当前和生命起源前时期空气传播的细菌和病毒背景下的气溶胶裂变方面。在超过44亿年的时间里，支持自然选择的各种因素将随着整个系统从相对简单发展到当前的复杂性而不断演变。
