PhysOrg.com reports that two Finnish scientists have published a study in the International Journal of Astrobiology entitled “Why Did Life Emerge.” Son and father Arto Annila of the University of Helsinki and Erkki Annila of the Finnish Forest Research Institute conclude,”The most important idea in our study is that there is no distinction between animate and inanimate. Processes of life are, in their principles, no different from any other natural processes.”

It is all a matter of thermodynamics.

As PhysOrg sums up, “[A]t the most basic level, natural selection is driven by the same thermodynamic principle: increasing entropy and decreasing energy differences.” Further, “What is more relevant, the scientists note, is the fact that the physical tendency to diminish energy differences makes no distinction between systems that are inanimate or animate. As the researchers explain, the order and complexity that characterize modern biological systems have no value in and of themselves, but structure and hierarchical organization emerged and developed because they provided paths for increasing energy flows.”

Move over sociobiology.

AJA