Order From Disorder
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Creationists have been claiming for decades that evolution must be impossible because it supposedly requires a decrease in entropy, in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. As with so many creationist arguments, this one depends upon misrepresenting the science, confusing several different meanings of “information” and “order”, and quietly omitting the conditions under which the law applies.
The second law does not say that entropy can never decrease anywhere. It says that the total entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease. Entropy may decrease in one part of a system provided that an equal or greater increase occurs elsewhere. A refrigerator, for example, reduces the entropy of its contents by transferring heat into the room, where its motor and cooling coils generate still more heat. The contents become colder and more ordered, but the total entropy of the refrigerator and its surroundings increases.
Strictly speaking, a “closed” system is one that can exchange energy, but not matter, with its surroundings. An “isolated” system exchanges neither. Earth is not isolated: it is continually receiving concentrated, high-temperature energy from the Sun and radiating more diffuse, low-temperature infrared energy into space. That energy flow powers weather systems, ocean currents, photosynthesis and almost every ecosystem on the planet. Organisms, meanwhile, are open systems that take in energy and matter and release heat and waste.
Consequently, the maintenance and growth of biological complexity do not require the entropy of the universe—or even that of Earth as a whole—to decrease. Organisms maintain their internal organisation by consuming free energy and exporting entropy into their surroundings. Every growing tree, developing embryo and reproducing bacterium does this without so much as inconveniencing the second law.
Nor is biological “information” simply the opposite of thermodynamic entropy. Genetic information refers to sequences and their biological effects, whereas thermodynamic entropy concerns the number and distribution of microscopic physical states available to a system. Treating the two as interchangeable because both employ the word “information” is not physics; it is wordplay.
Gravity makes the creationist caricature still less defensible. A diffuse cloud of gas can collapse under gravity to form a highly structured star and planetary system. To the unaided eye, this looks like disorder turning into order. Yet the collapse releases enormous quantities of heat and radiation, increasing the entropy of the wider system. Visible organisation and thermodynamic entropy are not simple opposites, especially when gravity is involved.
Now, a paper published in Physical Review D by Professor Ginestra Bianconi of Queen Mary University of London takes this relationship between gravity, information and thermodynamics much further. As Queen Mary University explains in its accompanying news release, Bianconi’s proposed “Gravity from Entropy” theory treats gravity as arising from information encoded in the interaction between matter and the geometry of spacetime.
This is a new and as yet unconfirmed theoretical framework, not an established replacement for general relativity. However, in the low-energy, weak-curvature conditions with which we are familiar, its equations reduce to Einstein’s equations. Bianconi has now applied the framework to homogeneous, expanding universes described by the standard Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker cosmological model.
The important result is that, within this framework, entropy per unit volume can decrease as the universe expands while its total entropy continues to increase. Local regions can therefore become more ordered and complex without the second law being violated, because it is the entropy of the complete system—not that of every arbitrarily selected part—which must not decrease. The theory provides a mathematical description of how local structure, including ultimately the conditions needed for stars, planets and life, can arise alongside a global increase in entropy.
None of this new theoretical work was needed to rescue evolution from thermodynamics; the creationist argument had already failed at the level of elementary textbook physics. What the research supplies is a much deeper account of how gravity, cosmic expansion and local organisation may fit into the thermodynamic history of the universe.
The creationist trick is simply to draw a boundary around whatever has become more organised—a cell, an organism or a planet—ignore all the energy, heat and waste crossing that boundary, and then invoke a law that applies to the larger isolated system. That is not a scientific objection to evolution. It is fraudulent thermodynamic bookkeeping.
Glossary of Technical Terms Entropy: A measurable physical property related to how energy and matter can be distributed among the possible microscopic states of a system. It is often loosely described as “disorder”, but visible untidiness and thermodynamic entropy are not the same thing.Professor Bianconi's paper in Physical Review D is accompanied by a news item from Queen Mary, University of London:
Second law of thermodynamics: The principle that the total entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease. Entropy may decrease locally provided that an equal or greater increase occurs elsewhere.
Open system: A system that can exchange both matter and energy with its surroundings. Living organisms are open systems because they take in food or light and release heat, waste products and matter.
Closed system: A system that can exchange energy, but not matter, with its surroundings. Its entropy can decrease if sufficient entropy is transferred to its surroundings.
Isolated system: A system that exchanges neither matter nor energy with its surroundings. It is the total entropy of such a system that cannot decrease under the second law.
Local entropy: The entropy within a selected part of a larger system. Local entropy may fall while the entropy of the complete system continues to rise.
Entropy density: The amount of entropy per unit volume. In an expanding universe, entropy density can decrease even while total entropy increases because the volume containing it is growing.
Free energy: The portion of a system’s energy that is available to perform useful work. Life uses free energy from sunlight or chemical reactions to maintain its internal organisation while releasing heat and increasing the entropy of its surroundings.
Statistical mechanics: The branch of physics that explains large-scale properties such as temperature, pressure and entropy in terms of the collective behaviour of enormous numbers of microscopic components.
Spacetime: The four-dimensional combination of the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. In general relativity, matter and energy curve spacetime, and that curvature is experienced as gravity.
Metric: The mathematical structure that determines distances, durations and angles in spacetime. In general relativity, the metric describes the geometry—and therefore the gravitational properties—of spacetime.
General relativity: Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, in which gravity is described as the curvature of spacetime caused by matter and energy.
Gravity from Entropy (GfE): Ginestra Bianconi’s proposed theoretical framework in which gravity emerges from information encoded in the interaction between matter and spacetime geometry. It remains a developing hypothesis requiring observational testing.
Geometric Quantum Relative Entropy (GQRE): A mathematical quantity used in GfE theory to compare the physical metric of spacetime with a metric induced by matter and curvature. “Relative entropy” here measures a form of informational difference and should not simply be equated with everyday disorder.
Friedmann universe: A mathematical model of a universe that is homogeneous and isotropic—broadly the same everywhere and in every direction—and that expands or contracts with time. Such models form the basis of modern cosmology.
Low-energy, small-curvature limit: Conditions in which energies are not extreme and spacetime is not severely distorted. Under these familiar conditions, the equations of Gravity from Entropy theory approximate those of general relativity.
Dark energy: The name given to whatever is driving the observed acceleration of cosmic expansion. In GfE theory, a possible dark-energy-like contribution emerges dynamically from the interaction between matter and geometry rather than being inserted as a fixed cosmological constant.
The Gravity from Entropy theory offers new clues for reconciling gravity with the second law of thermodynamics
Queen Mary University mathematician Professor Ginestra Bianconi explores how gravity can be reconciled with thermodynamics within the Gravity from Entropy theory
A new study by Queen Mary University of London mathematician Professor Ginestra Bianconi proposes a new perspective on one of the deepest questions in modern physics: how can the Universe become increasingly structured and complex while still obeying the second law of thermodynamics?
Einstein famously stated that “The second law of thermodynamics occupies a unique position among the laws of Nature,” reflecting his conviction that it is among the most fundamental principles of physics and unlikely to be overthrown. The second law states that the total entropy of an isolated system tends to increase over time, a principle often associated with the growth of disorder.
This presents a long-standing puzzle in cosmology. The early Universe is generally believed to have existed in a low-entropy state and to evolve toward states of higher entropy. Yet over cosmic history, the Universe has also given rise to increasingly complex structures, including galaxies, stars, planets, and ultimately life itself. Reconciling the emergence of such ordered structures with the relentless increase of entropy remains an open challenge.
In a recent paper published in Physical Review D, Professor Bianconi investigates this question within the framework of the Gravity from Entropy (GfE) theory, a quantum gravity approach that derives gravity from the microscopic degrees of freedom of spacetime geometry using principles of statistical mechanics.
In this study, by exploring the thermodynamic properties of the Gravity from Entropy theory, she shows that while the total entropy of the Universe increases in time, the entropy per unit volume decreases in time, leaving open new interpretations for the emergence of local structures.
The connection between gravity and thermodynamics has been known since the pioneering work of Jacob Bekenstein and Stephen Hawking in the 1970s, which established that black holes possess entropy and emit thermal radiation. These discoveries suggested a deep relationship between spacetime, information, and thermodynamics.
Gravity from Entropy (GfE) proposes that gravity emerges from the information-theoretic tension between the true spacetime metric and the metric induced by matter fields and curvature. This new physical interpretation of gravity is reflected in the GfE Lagrangian, which is given by the Quantum Geometric Relative Entropy (QGRE) between these two metrics. The GfE gravity equations reduce to General Relativity for low energies and small curvature, but beyond the weak limit, they deviate from it. Interestingly, beyond the weak limit, the GfE equations include the emergence of a dynamical dark energy term that could lead to testable predictions of the theory.
This study explores the thermodynamic properties of the GfE theory in Friedmann–Robertson–Walker cosmological spacetimes. The results show that the local geometric degrees of freedom satisfy a first law of thermodynamics, in which the emergent dynamical dark-energy contribution can be interpreted as an internal energy, while the Quantum Geometric Relative Entropy (QGRE) can be identified as the local entropy per unit volume. Within this framework, effective temperature and pressure quantities also emerge naturally. Together, these findings suggest that the quantum state underlying the GfE theory may possess an intrinsic thermal nature.
The study also highlights the fundamental role of the local volume element defined by the measure induced by the physical metric. As the Universe expands, this volume grows over time. Within the framework of the GfE theory, this expansion leads to an increase in the total entropy, while the local QGRE per unit volume decreases with time. This result reveals a distinctive thermodynamic behaviour of the GfE theory.
Overall, this work proposes that gravity and spacetime may have an intrinsic thermodynamic and informational nature. This opens new possibilities for understanding the deep connections between gravity, quantum theory, and the emergence of complexity in the Universe.
While still at an early theoretical stage, the authors say the work could help bridge long-standing gaps between general relativity, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology.
[Hence] This work reveals how the Gravity from Entropy theory can tackle the challenging question to reconcile the second principle of thermodynamics with the emergence of complexity in our Universe. These results may open new avenues for investigating the long-standing problem of reconciling the foundations of cosmological irreversibility, the emergence of complex structures, and ultimately life, with fundamental gravitational dynamics.
Professor Ginestra Bianconi, author.
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
London, UK.
Publication:
Whether Gravity from Entropy ultimately proves to be a successful theory is a question for further mathematical development, observational testing and scientific debate. Its importance here is not that evolution needed rescuing from the second law — elementary thermodynamics had already disposed of that creationist claim — but that it supplies a sophisticated cosmological example of the very principle creationists refuse to acknowledge: entropy can decrease locally while continuing to increase globally.
The emergence of stars, planets and living systems therefore presents no thermodynamic paradox. The universe contains enormous gradients of temperature, pressure and chemical potential from which useful work can be extracted. On Earth, organisms exploit the continuing flow of energy from the hot Sun towards the coldness of space, maintaining and reproducing their internal organisation while releasing heat and waste. Natural selection operates within that energy-driven system; it neither requires nor predicts a decrease in the total entropy of the universe.
Creationists manufacture their alleged contradiction by drawing an imaginary boundary around the organism or structure whose increasing complexity they wish to explain, while ignoring everything crossing that boundary. They count the local increase in organisation but omit the consumed energy, expelled waste and dissipated heat. They then invoke the second law while disregarding the very system to which it must be applied. That is not a scientific calculation but a thermodynamic confidence trick.
Far from showing that complexity requires supernatural intervention, modern physics explains how local organisation can arise naturally within a universe whose total entropy continues to increase. Gravity forms stars and planets, energy gradients sustain complex chemistry, and evolution shapes reproducing organisms—all without suspending a single physical law. The second law is no obstacle to evolution; it is an obstacle only to the creationist misrepresentation of it.
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