Last year, scientists proposed that all complex systems in the universe evolved in a life-like fashion—including stars, planets, and technology. Now, researchers claim to have found proof of this law that binds minerals together.
The new study is a proof of concept for what was recently proposed “no law” which explains why many complex systems seem to become more complex over time. This law of increasing information, introduced in October 2023, expanded Charles Darwin’s concept of evolution by natural selection including non-living processes.
The researchers behind the new study have shown that, like life, minerals become more complex over time when they are under selection pressure. They published their findings in the July issue of the journal PNAS Nexus.
“Ultimately, we hope that this work will contribute to developing a unifying theory of how all complex systems, living and non-living, change over time,” learns the co-author. Michael Wong, an astronomer and planetary scientist at the Carnegie Science Center in Washington, DC, told Live Science. “A result that we believe will revolutionize science.”
Related: The discovery of “dark oxygen” from deep ocean sediments could lead to a rethinking of the origins of life.
The rule to add performance information states that “the functional information of a system will increase (ie, the system will change) if many different configurations of the system select one or more tasks.”
If the proposed rule is correct, then minerals and other complex systems should be complex and show an increase in performance information under continuous selection pressures. This functional information is the number of settings in the system that can perform a specific task, according to the study. In this case, the settings are minerals and the function is stability over time or persistence, so complexity is measured by the number of minerals that are stable.
To test the law, the researchers used a computer model to measure the complexity of more than nine minerals proposed stages of mineral evolution and estimate the proportion of all chemical compounds that can be seen in those minerals from one stage to another.
Over a period of more than 4.6 billion years, starting with the first minerals known from before the Earth was formed 4.54 billion years ago and ending with all the minerals that exist on our planet today, the number of species of minerals increased from 27 to 9,000, respectively. in education. This increase in the complexity of Earth’s minerals also occurred at each stage of mineral evolution – the first stage being the formation of the earliest minerals and the last stage being the modern Earth, where mineral creation facilitated by life.
“Each step depends on what came before,” the study’s lead author Robert Hazen, a scientist who researches the role of minerals in the origin of life at Carnegie Science, told Live Science. “You have this stepping stone where you have to get to one stage of mineral evolution before you can move on to the next.”
This proposed evolution of minerals is broadly similar to the evolution of life, which began with single-celled organisms that evolved into multicellular cells. a complicated life species. However, the researchers noted that there appears to be a limit to mineral diversity due to the limited number of chemical compounds – and according to their model, Earth’s minerals are approaching that limit.
This restriction would make the evolution of minerals “limited,” while the evolution of organisms is “unlimited,” with no limits on how complex life can be, according to the study. .
Hazen and Wong said they will continue to work on the law, looking for common themes between complex systems, which may include language, music and other human activities.
“In our lives, we experience this increase in activity,” Wong said. “This is something we’re trying to put to science.”
Wong pointed to the increasing sophistication of phones, which started out as simple calling devices and evolved into the powerful, versatile smartphones we use today. Meanwhile, Hazen believes that creating this law is an opportunity to answer one of people’s biggest questions.
“I think all of us, everyone, have a variation of the question, ‘Why is there something rather than nothing in the universe?'” Hazen he said. “We feel it has to be a legal process.”
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