Seeking the Chemical Roots of Darwinism: Bridging between Chemistry and Biology

Chemistry and biology are intimately connected sciences yet the chemistry–biology interface remains problematic and central issues regarding the very essence of living systems remain unresolved. In this essay we build on a kinetic theory of replicating systems that encompasses the idea that there are two distinct kinds of stability in nature—thermodynamic stability, associated with “regular” chemical systems, and dynamic kinetic stability, associated with replicating systems. That fundamental distinction is utilized to bridge between chemistry and biology by demonstrating that within the parallel world of replicating systems there is a second law analogue to the second law of thermodynamics, and that Darwinian theory may, through scientific reductionism, be related to that second law analogue. Possible implications of these ideas to the origin of life problem and the relationship between chemical emergence and biological evolution are discussed. Darwin and the second law of thermodynamics: The suggestion that there are two distinct kinds of stability in nature—replicative and “regular”—leads to the integration of Darwinian theory within chemical kinetic theory, to the unification of chemical emergence and biological evolution, and to the proposal of a second law analogue in the world of replicating systems.