Rough guide: a simple explanation of
the theory
When a giant lump of space rock hits the planet, dust is thrown into the atmosphere. The rate of supply of life-giving energy pouring in from the sun is dramatically reduced. Plants are the first to notice and begin to starve. Herbivores then struggle followed by carnivores. The results can be dramatic. Vast numbers of species are wiped out, as the fossil record testifies. But it is what happens afterwards that interested me. How does life recover, and what does this tell us about biological evolution? The graph shows how diversification of species changes following a mass extinction. As we can see, evolution works fastest early in the recovery, slowing down as diversity increases. In other words, the more species there are, the slower evolution works. This is the opposite of what Darwinian theory suggests. Natural selection and competition increase when things get crowded, yet the fossil record demonstrates that in the crowded market place, evolution is at its slowest.
My theory sets out a completely different explanation. It all has to do with diffusion. If you spray perfume in a room, the perfume particles spread until the particles are equally spread throughout the room. The rate at which the room fills is rapid initially, until the room is evenly filled, after which a dynamic equilibrium is established, with particles still moving but with no change in the overall evenness of spread.
Firstly, energy is essential for life to exist. Energy determines so much of the structure and function of life. We eat to gain energy; we breathe to burn the sugar we eat; animals migrate towards favourable energy environments; food webs are energy webs; mutations of our DNA are caused by energy; photosynthesis captures energy from sunlight. And the laws relating to energy determine the structure and function of the biosphere. My theory takes this one logical step further: the laws relating to energy also control the evolution of life on earth and, indeed, anywhere else in the universe.
Thus I combined four sets of rules and applied them to the diversification of life. Genetic material becomes increasingly entropic through random mutations. This drives random exploration of thermodynamic space by proteins, whose folding is determined by genetic sequence and thermodynamics. Organisms explore trophodynamic and ecological space, diffusing into available ecospace, while populations are limited by free energy and opportunity. Populations participate in ecological succession, itself driven by the laws of thermodynamics. Life diffuses into the available space it has. It also evolves at a logistic rate, just like populations and ecosystems, to a state where the maximum amount of energy is transformed from useful to less useful energy, as demanded by the second law of thermodynamics. Upon reaching this level, evolution grinds to a halt, or rather a dynamic equilibrium, where unless an opportunity arises (in the form of evolutionary space), little diversification arises. Thus my theory unifies population growth, ecological succession and biological evolution as expressions of the laws of physics related to energy (thermodynamics). This provides a much better explanation across all of biology. For the first time we can model the fossil record for the last 500 million years using basic thermodynamic relationships, to a probability of 99.9%. This has never been possible using the standard evolutionary theory of Darwin. Furthermore, the response to mass extinction is now clearly explained. This truly is a unified theory of biology.
When a giant lump of space rock hits the planet, dust is thrown into the atmosphere. The rate of supply of life-giving energy pouring in from the sun is dramatically reduced. Plants are the first to notice and begin to starve. Herbivores then struggle followed by carnivores. The results can be dramatic. Vast numbers of species are wiped out, as the fossil record testifies. But it is what happens afterwards that interested me. How does life recover, and what does this tell us about biological evolution? The graph shows how diversification of species changes following a mass extinction. As we can see, evolution works fastest early in the recovery, slowing down as diversity increases. In other words, the more species there are, the slower evolution works. This is the opposite of what Darwinian theory suggests. Natural selection and competition increase when things get crowded, yet the fossil record demonstrates that in the crowded market place, evolution is at its slowest.
My theory sets out a completely different explanation. It all has to do with diffusion. If you spray perfume in a room, the perfume particles spread until the particles are equally spread throughout the room. The rate at which the room fills is rapid initially, until the room is evenly filled, after which a dynamic equilibrium is established, with particles still moving but with no change in the overall evenness of spread.
Firstly, energy is essential for life to exist. Energy determines so much of the structure and function of life. We eat to gain energy; we breathe to burn the sugar we eat; animals migrate towards favourable energy environments; food webs are energy webs; mutations of our DNA are caused by energy; photosynthesis captures energy from sunlight. And the laws relating to energy determine the structure and function of the biosphere. My theory takes this one logical step further: the laws relating to energy also control the evolution of life on earth and, indeed, anywhere else in the universe.
Thus I combined four sets of rules and applied them to the diversification of life. Genetic material becomes increasingly entropic through random mutations. This drives random exploration of thermodynamic space by proteins, whose folding is determined by genetic sequence and thermodynamics. Organisms explore trophodynamic and ecological space, diffusing into available ecospace, while populations are limited by free energy and opportunity. Populations participate in ecological succession, itself driven by the laws of thermodynamics. Life diffuses into the available space it has. It also evolves at a logistic rate, just like populations and ecosystems, to a state where the maximum amount of energy is transformed from useful to less useful energy, as demanded by the second law of thermodynamics. Upon reaching this level, evolution grinds to a halt, or rather a dynamic equilibrium, where unless an opportunity arises (in the form of evolutionary space), little diversification arises. Thus my theory unifies population growth, ecological succession and biological evolution as expressions of the laws of physics related to energy (thermodynamics). This provides a much better explanation across all of biology. For the first time we can model the fossil record for the last 500 million years using basic thermodynamic relationships, to a probability of 99.9%. This has never been possible using the standard evolutionary theory of Darwin. Furthermore, the response to mass extinction is now clearly explained. This truly is a unified theory of biology.