REAL GENES, REAL INTELLIGENCE 107is the diffi culty of seeing how else order and complexity in living things
could have originated.
It so happens, however, that another origins story has become appar-
ent in recent years. Biophysicists have been observing how structure and
complexity emerge all the time through natu ral thermodynamic forces.
Uneven distributions of energy create disequilibria in physico- chemical
systems. Th e systems are rebalanced by dissipating their energy through
the most eco nom ical means pos si ble. Doing so usually creates changes in
matter itself, oft en including the emergence of complex structures.
Th e sun in our solar system is the most prominent source of such
disequilibria. Th e uneven distribution of energy (light, heat, and gravi-
tational) patently drives so many complex, structured activities on earth.
But the pro cess has been studied in much simpler systems.
For example, if a layer of liquid between two glass plates is heated
from below for a short period, the layer may churn a bit and show signs
of random disturbance. But then it quickly returns to its homogeneous,
equilibrium condition. If the heat persists, however, the disequilibrium
eventually exceeds a critical— far from equilibrium— point at which the
liquid forms a new kind of more or ga nized motion. Th is movement is not
random. It can be seen on closer inspection to consist of closely packed
and structured convection cells moving in alternate directions.
Such complex formations are known as Bénard cells, aft er Henri Bénard,
who studied them around 1900 (fi gure 4.1). Th e tendency to move toward
the most effi cient means of absorbing and dispersing heat has produced an
ordered structure. Structure and complexity have emerged without the
intervention of a specifi c coordinator— that is, the system is self- organized.
Researchers have now demonstrated complex, self- organ izing struc-
tures in so many domains of existence. Spirals, coils, and helical clusters,
sometimes arranged as hierarchies, suddenly appear in apparently inert
liquids.^1 In the famous Belousov- Zhabotinsky reaction, a mixture of cer-
tain acids forms patterns of waves and concentric circles that change over
time (fi gure 4.1b). Many examples of these patterns are displayed on
Wikipedia and YouTube. On a larger scale are the turbulence patterns
of liquids and gases under shear stress, tornado vortices, and weather
changes. As in living things, they suggest some specifi c form- making agent
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