From: aproden@ac.dal.ca (Andrew P. Rodenhiser)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc,sci.physics,sci.chem
Subject: Evolution vs. Creation : Manfred Eigen
Date: 27 Aug 92 09:42:48 -0300
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

In article <1992Aug22.030741.5679@unixg.ubc.ca>, guth@unixg.ubc.ca (Geoff Guth) writes:
> In article <h2#nrz=.noring@netcom.com> noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring) writes:
>>A slightly different way to look at the 2nd Law (tm) is it's statement that
>>for any *irreversible* process, the entropy of the *universe* must necessarily
>>increase.  It is possible to look at any finite volume (but not isolated)
>>and possibly observe a decrease of entropy in that volume because of some
>>process, but the entropy of the rest of the universe outside of that volume
>>will necessarily increase at an even greater extent with the final result that
>>the entropy of the *whole* universe will increase.
> 
> If I may draw a parallel here, if you clean a room in your house, that would
> be a local decrease of entropy (ie the room becomes more organized)  However,
> this is balanced by the energy that has to be put in to clean the room, and
> the corresponding increase in entropy that brings (eg carbohydrates in the
> body are "burned" and turned into H2O and CO2, oil and gas is burned to
> make the electricity that runs the vacuum cleaner, etc.)
> 
> Actually, the way I see it, the 2nd law actually _favors_ evolution.  After
> all, mutations are errors in the duplication of genetic code, which likely
> would not occur if the overall entropy tended to decrease or remain constant
> (think what a bizzarre universe THAT would be!).  Also remember that most
> mutations are unfavorable to the species, only the odd one will actually be
> an improvement.
> 
> Geoff.
> 
Anyone interested in some recent research on this should look for
articles by Dr. Manfred Eigen, Director, Max Planck Institute for
Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany, Nobel Laureate 1967.
Two years ago he gave a public talk at Dalhousie on the Physical
Basis of Life, outlining his research in natural selection.

From the Abstract of the talk:

What distinguishes a living system from any non-living ensemble, however
complex?  It is information that ensures controlled synthesis and reproducible
conservation of living matter.  Information, however, is not subject to
conservation laws, hence the fundamental question behind the origin of life
is: How does (genetic) information originate?  Charles Darwin gave the
answer about 130 years ago: information originates and evolves by virtue
of natural selection.  We may add that natural selection is a consequence
of mutagenous self-reproduction.  New physical concepts have been
introduced to deal quantitatively with the generation of genetic information
resulting in major modifications of the classical interpretation of
Darwinian behaviour.  An understanding of the principles of molecular
self-organization of living systems has made possible the construction
of machines in which genetic information evolves under controlled
conditions on a compressed timescale.

The gist of the talk was that using computer simulation, they found
that entropy drives evolution, and the most favorable mutations were
seen to thrive and overcome the weaker ones.  I'm afraid I can't 
really explain the theory, if you're interested try finding his
papers.  All I can say is that the talk increased my understanding
of genetics and evolution by an order of magnitude.

> -- 
> 
> |Geoff Guth                          |Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni |
> |Richard Britnell de Salisbury (sca) |     in rebus latinis alacribus et      |
> |guth@unixg.ubc.ca                   |        fructuosis potiri potes!        |
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew Paul Rodenhiser   |  You are the only censor.
Department of Chemistry  |  If you don't like what I'm saying,
Dalhousie University     |  you have the choice.
Halifax, N.S. Canada     |  You can turn me off!
APRODEN@ac.dal.ca        |   --Alice Cooper, Lay Down & Die, Goodbye.
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Xref: sparky talk.religion.misc:15522 alt.atheism:16446