{"id":232443,"date":"2026-01-14T09:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/232443\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:13:10","slug":"scientists-propose-a-new-law-of-nature-that-links-life-stars-planets-and-minerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/232443\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists propose a new law of nature that links life, stars, planets, and minerals"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of scientists and philosophers believes Charles Darwin\u2019s 19th-century theory of evolution is just a special case within a far more universal principle \u2014 one that governs not only life, but also minerals, planets, and even stars. Get ready for a lively debate.<\/p>\n

What if evolution didn\u2019t stop with living things? That\u2019s the bold claim of nine researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science, whose new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (October 16, 2023) proposes a sweeping framework for how complexity itself evolves across the universe.<\/p>\n

Their idea centers on what they call the \u201claw of increasing functional information.\u201d It suggests that every complex natural system \u2014 from atoms<\/a> and minerals to planets and biological life \u2014 naturally evolves toward states that are more structured, more diverse, and more intricate over time.<\/p>\n

Life, atoms, and stars<\/p>\n

So, what does that really mean? Before looking at examples, it\u2019s key to understand how the authors define \u201cevolution.\u201d In this context, it means \u201cselection for function.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Darwin saw function mainly in terms of survival \u2014 an organism\u2019s ability to live long enough to reproduce \u2014 the team expands the idea to include \u201cstability\u201d (the ability to persist) and \u201cnovelty\u201d (the emergence of new patterns or configurations).<\/p>\n

To show how novelty evolves, the paper points to examples ranging from biology to geology: photosynthesis, multicellular life (when cells began working together as one organism), and even complex animal behaviors. The same principle applies to the mineral world.<\/p>\n

When our solar system formed, Earth\u2019s minerals numbered only about twenty. Today, there are nearly 6,000. Likewise, after the Big Bang<\/a>, the universe began with just hydrogen and helium. From these two simple elements, the first stars forged roughly twenty heavier ones \u2014 the seeds from which later generations of stars produced nearly a hundred more.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvolution is everywhere\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCharles Darwin described beautifully how plants and animals evolve through natural selection, producing countless variations among individuals,\u201d said Professor Robert M. Hazen of Carnegie, who led the study. \u201cWe argue that Darwin\u2019s theory represents one very special, though crucial, example of a much broader natural phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n

His coauthor, astrobiologist Michael L. Wong, added: \u201cThe universe constantly generates new combinations of atoms, molecules, and cells. The ones that are stable and capable of generating even more novelty will continue to evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why life stands out as evolution\u2019s most dramatic expression \u2014 but evolution is truly everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

This proposed \u201claw of nature,\u201d which describes the steady rise of complexity, echoes another well-known principle: the second law of thermodynamics<\/a>, which states that entropy \u2014 or disorder \u2014 in a closed system always increases over time. It\u2019s the reason heat naturally flows from warmer objects to cooler ones.<\/p>\n

A new debate begins<\/p>\n

Forces, motion, gravity, electromagnetism, energy \u2014 most of the classic \u201claws of nature\u201d were formulated more than 150 years ago.<\/p>\n

Now, this new idea \u2014 shaped by a team of philosophers, astrobiologists, a data scientist, a mineralogist, and a theoretical physicist \u2014 is certain to spark discussion throughout the scientific world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, much like the early efforts to define \u2018energy\u2019 and \u2018entropy\u2019 in the 19th century, we need open and wide-ranging dialogue,\u201d said Stuart Kauffman of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a reminder that a theory only becomes scientific when it produces testable predictions \u2014 results precise enough to be verified or disproved through observation and experiment.<\/p>\n

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