Bc physics basically, particularly the principle of conservation of mass, but more to the point I suppose, if that ever does happen, then I simply am unaware of it!:-P
What makes crystals self-replicating is not that they spontaneously appear from thin air (although it could appear that way sometimes?) but that as they grow outward in one direction, new atoms attach onto the preexisting pattern, so the overall mass remains constant, and overall entropy still increases (though not locally), but the “pattern” is what gets replicated.
With that in mind, molecular prions such as mad cow disease/scrappy can self-replicate in a limited sense where when the disease-causing form comes into contact with the natural form, the former converts the latter into becoming like it. Here too mass is conserved, but the pattern has been changed, acting as a propagation of a signal (“be like me”, I guess?:-P but like, literally the situation would change from one molecule of each type to two molecules of a particular form, so the information content of the system has changed).
Perhaps a similar process can happen to atoms, although nothing really comes to mind in the sense of a population. Like water isn’t H2O so much as a collection of H3O+ & HO-, and I can envision them converting forms constantly shifting the electron around, but (1) the overall population of the body of water would not be changed then, and (2) I think I’ve heard that even that much may not be quite true, probably depending on how pure the water is?
But really it’s hard to see how any of the above can be called “evolution”, except in like a low-level technical sense that offers far less of interest to study and think about… at least, as clarified above, on earth and on human timescales.
And I mentioned that viruses self-replicate as well. Those at least are more interesting bc of the genetic component, even if they may not be free living and thus fully “alive” depending on how you define that.
There is little that is ever “fully true” in biology, only a massive collection of rules, almost every single one of which has exceptions it would seem (like I could imagine saying “all known life is found exclusively on earth”, and then wouldn’t you know it, someone will eventually discover that bacterial spores can be found in space as far away as Pluto, just waiting to become rehydrated and come alive again:-D). So when I say that bacteria are basically the smallest unit of evolution, I already know that’s not “fully” true, just that it is one of the most “interesting” forms. Crystals, molecules, and atoms don’t sprout a tail and swim towards the light at least, or there too if they ever have, then I did not know about it!:-D
Bc physics basically, particularly the principle of conservation of mass, but more to the point I suppose, if that ever does happen, then I simply am unaware of it!:-P
What makes crystals self-replicating is not that they spontaneously appear from thin air (although it could appear that way sometimes?) but that as they grow outward in one direction, new atoms attach onto the preexisting pattern, so the overall mass remains constant, and overall entropy still increases (though not locally), but the “pattern” is what gets replicated.
With that in mind, molecular prions such as mad cow disease/scrappy can self-replicate in a limited sense where when the disease-causing form comes into contact with the natural form, the former converts the latter into becoming like it. Here too mass is conserved, but the pattern has been changed, acting as a propagation of a signal (“be like me”, I guess?:-P but like, literally the situation would change from one molecule of each type to two molecules of a particular form, so the information content of the system has changed).
Perhaps a similar process can happen to atoms, although nothing really comes to mind in the sense of a population. Like water isn’t H2O so much as a collection of H3O+ & HO-, and I can envision them converting forms constantly shifting the electron around, but (1) the overall population of the body of water would not be changed then, and (2) I think I’ve heard that even that much may not be quite true, probably depending on how pure the water is?
But really it’s hard to see how any of the above can be called “evolution”, except in like a low-level technical sense that offers far less of interest to study and think about… at least, as clarified above, on earth and on human timescales.
And I mentioned that viruses self-replicate as well. Those at least are more interesting bc of the genetic component, even if they may not be free living and thus fully “alive” depending on how you define that.
There is little that is ever “fully true” in biology, only a massive collection of rules, almost every single one of which has exceptions it would seem (like I could imagine saying “all known life is found exclusively on earth”, and then wouldn’t you know it, someone will eventually discover that bacterial spores can be found in space as far away as Pluto, just waiting to become rehydrated and come alive again:-D). So when I say that bacteria are basically the smallest unit of evolution, I already know that’s not “fully” true, just that it is one of the most “interesting” forms. Crystals, molecules, and atoms don’t sprout a tail and swim towards the light at least, or there too if they ever have, then I did not know about it!:-D