Cool is not enough

摘要

The level of organization in even the simplest living systems is so remarkable that many, if not most, non-scientists believe that we need to go outside science to explain it. This belief is subtly reinforced by the fact that many scientists still think the emergence of life was a fortuitous accident that required a good roll of the molecular dice, in a place where the conditions are just so, in a Universe where the laws of physics are just right. The opposing view is that matter tends to organize itself according to general principles, making the eventual emergence of life inevitable. Such principles would not require any modifications of the laws of physics, but would come from a better understanding of how complex behaviour arises from the interaction of simple components.