The Second Law of Thermodynamics and Evolution

Chemical Oscillators and the Origin of Life

Chemical oscillators are systems of chemicals that exhibit very interesting time-based fluctuations when they are far from equilibrium. These fluctuations may cause a solution of chemicals to change colors in a periodic fashion or create complex spatial patterns (figure 7.6).

It would be incorrect to suggest that these systems possess molecular knowledge because their behavior does not benefit any of the chemicals involved. They do not self replicate. Nevertheless, they are interesting anomalies. On their way toward chemical equilibrium, these systems take a detour and veer off course. They eventually reach equilibrium, and the oscillation stops.

These systems do not help explain the origin of life. They have never been implicated in the prebiotic synthesis of proteins, DNA or RNA. The chemicals in these oscillators cannot evolve because they have no mechanism to store information, and they do not self replicate. These systems are like a man-made machine. For example, a battery powered watch is a chemical oscillator. The watch hands move in a periodic fashion, and the hands stop when the battery dies. The knowledge that enables the watch to do this is built into it by engineers. In a similar fashion, chemists bring together the necessary chemicals for chemical oscillators.

Figure 7.6: A Chemical Oscillator

The popularity of chemical oscillators in the origins field rests largely on the shoulders of two authors, Kauffman and Prigogine. Both dedicated an entire book to this one subject. Despite their enthusiasm, chemical oscillators do not solve any of the problems related to the origin of life. While they do tap an energy source to perform work, the energy source is limited, and once it runs out, the oscillation ceases. Furthermore, because these systems have no way to store molecular knowledge, they cannot evolve, and perhaps most importantly, the systems do not self replicate. A chemical oscillator has about as much chance of evolving into a living organism as does a watch. Neither possesses the knowledge or has the ability to acquire the knowledge required for self replication. So natural selection cannot optimize these systems, and evolution cannot take place.

           Kauffman has also put forth several other ideas concerning the origin of life and self organization. For example, in order to create a self organizing system, he envisions a set of chemicals that perform the many functions of enzymes described in this chapter. So he defines a self organizing system as life, and it stands to reason that life can self replicate. He just assumes that the molecular knowledge and a method to implement the knowledge already exist, and once these two are in place, life is inevitable. Unfortunately, his ideas do not explain how the knowledge arose in the first place. He also fails to consider the need to tap a plentiful energy source to perform work. So most of his ideas give rise to perpetual motion machines.

            Furthermore, he continually confuses order with knowledge. Because most of his thought experiments and computer simulations actually give rise to order, many of the ideas that he proposes are not relevant to the origin of life. For example, he simulates the order that arises when many logic gates are connected together in a random fashion. He observes large sections of these arrays oscillating at the same frequency. Any electrical engineer would immediately recognize his system as nothing more than a collection of ring oscillators, and the order that results contains no useful information.

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