From: To: Jeffrey Epstein < >, Barnaby Marsh Subject: Fwd: [Dewayne-Net] A New Physics Theory of Life Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 23:48:26 +0000 Pls excuse tupos & abbrvtns Begin forwarded message: From: Dewayne Hendricks Date: January 22, 2014, 3:35:52 PM PST To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net Subject: [Dewayne-Net] A New Physics Theory of Life Reply-To: [Note: This item comes from reader Randall Head. DLH] A New Physics Theory of Life By Natalie Wolchover Jan 22 2014 <https://www.simonsfoundation.orgiquanta/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/> Why does life exist? Popular hypotheses credit a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning and a colossal stroke of luck. But if a provocative new theory is correct, luck may have little to do with it. Instead, according to the physicist proposing the idea, the origin and subsequent evolution of life follow from the fundamental laws of nature and "should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill." From the standpoint of physics, there is one essential difference between living things and inanimate clumps of carbon atoms: The former tend to be much better at capturing energy from their environment and dissipating that energy as heat. Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life. "You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant," England said. England's theory is m