Is life merely a byproduct of the universe's struggle to manage its own entropy?
In short: While we often view biology as separate from the cosmos, some physicists argue that life is fundamentally tied to the laws of thermodynamics. By creating pockets of order, living systems may be essential players in the universe's ongoing transition toward higher entropy, effectively feeding on the flow of energy.
The relationship between life and entropy has fascinated scientists for over a century. In 1875, physicist Ludwig Boltzmann proposed that the struggle for existence is not about raw materials or energy, which are abundant, but a struggle for entropy. He argued that life thrives by capturing energy as it transitions from the hot sun to the cold Earth, a process that allows organisms to maintain their internal order while contributing to the overall increase of entropy in the universe.
Erwin Schrödinger further popularized this connection in his 1943 lectures at Trinity College Dublin, later published as the book What Is Life?. Schrödinger suggested that living matter is governed by aperiodic crystals, which he hypothesized would contain a code-script for development—an early, intuitive description of DNA. While he initially described life as feeding on negative entropy, he later clarified that the true source is free energy. Modern research often focuses on Gibbs free energy, as biological processes typically occur at constant temperature and pressure.
Today, some researchers suggest a hidden interdependence between living systems and cosmology. The second law of thermodynamics dictates that entropy must always increase, yet life and cosmic structures like stars represent regions of lower entropy. These structures can exist because they concentrate order locally while ensuring that the universe as a whole continues to grow more disordered. Plants, for instance, absorb solar energy and release it as heat, returning more entropy to the environment than they consume. This entropy-lowering network may be the fundamental currency of the biosphere, though why the early universe possessed the low entropy required for this development remains a significant, unresolved problem in physics.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Is life the result of the laws of entropy? | New Scientist
- Also: Entropy and life
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