Informational Entropy as a Source of Life’s Origin

Shahram Yazdani

doi:10.4236/jmp.2019.1013099

Abstract

While the second law of thermodynamics suggests that our universe is driven by the tendency towards disorder, living organisms seem to exempt themselves by creating physiologic complexity. Since genetic material is life’s blueprint, better understanding of the origins of life is predicated on deciphering the conditions that allowed the formation of this complex molecule with its unique properties. In this article, we propose and examine the hypothesis that informational entropy models would allow for the formation of complex organic molecules with genetic properties, without the disruption of the second law of thermodynamics. Therefore, we demonstrate that formation of life’s blueprint may have initially been derived by informational entropy by means of decomplexification of the materials with higher informational entropy content, leading to the formation of primitive genetic molecules.

Highlights

The ability of living organisms to defy the natural tendency of all matter towards decay by creating order and evolving into complex organisms has been the subject of much fascination since the ancient times
While the second law of thermodynamics suggests that our universe is driven by the tendency towards disorder, living organisms seem to exempt themselves by creating physiologic complexity
We propose and examine the hypothesis that informational entropy models would allow for the formation of complex organic molecules with genetic properties, without the disruption of the second law of thermodynamics

Summary

Introduction

The ability of living organisms to defy the natural tendency of all matter towards decay by creating order and evolving into complex organisms has been the subject of much fascination since the ancient times. Formation of life’s molecular blueprint and its surrounding structures from the less complex substrates requires temporary violation of the second law of thermodynamics by reducing the entropy of the substrates through their organization into more complex compounds and eventually a living organism with the promise of increased consumption of food material, export of entropy, and overall increase in the system’s entropy. To overcome this challenge, Horowitz and England have proposed an in silico model of molecules where inanimate material settings may act “life-like” by maintaining a “far-from-equilibrium” steady state [3].

Information and Life

Substrate for Information

Information as the Common Denominator

Conclusion