XXVII.1.6 It is said that the second law of thermodynamics allegedly rules out spontaneous upgrade of a system’s level of organization; consequently, living organisms can allegedly not be formed spontaneously from simple non-living components

The second law of thermodynamic is valid only for the organization of isolated systems.In open systems, i.e. systems that exchange energy and mass with their surroundings, the degree of organization can both decrease and increase (Prigogine & Stengersová 2001).Energy from the Sun constantly impacts on the Earth and, on the other hand, thermal energy is constantly irradiated back into the surroundings.This means that the overall degree of organization of the Sun-Earth system decreases, while the degree of organization of the Earth increases at the expense of the rest of the solar system.Similarly, the individual living organisms have an increasing level of organization at the expense of the organization of the substances that they consume.

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The classical Darwinian theory of evolution can explain the evolution of adaptive traits only in asexual organisms. The frozen plasticity theory is much more general: It can also explain the origin and evolution of adaptive traits in both asexual and sexual organisms Read more
Draft translation from: Evoluční biologie, 2. vydání (Evolutionary biology, 2nd edition), J. Flegr, Academia Prague 2009. The translation was not done by biologist, therefore any suggestion concerning proper scientific terminology and language usage are highly welcomed. You can send your comments to flegratcesnet [dot] cz. Thank you.