Let there be life. Thermodynamic reflections on biogenesis and evolution

The question of how life emerged from inanimate matter is closely related to the more fundamental question, namely: What is life? Both issues yield novel insights when discussed in the light of thermodynamics. The model proposed here is based on a simple assumption, namely, that life began with the accidental assembly of a self-replicating molecule. From this assumption the emergence of life naturally follows, enabling a new understanding of evolution as a whole. The evolution of any type of self-replicating systems, even the simplest ones, is shown to be highly efficient in extracting, recording and processing information about the environment. A variety of related issues yield some surprising conclusions when discussed in the thermodynamic context. New processes of order-increase are pointed out, a novel measure of information is proposed, and Lamarckianism is proved to be inconsistent with thermodynamics. Recent works on biogenesis and evolution are critically reviewed.