Dr. Annila, biophysics professor, searches through the intricacies of the time and space relationship in this discussion. He explains:

• What Darwin’s theory of natural selection has to do with physics equations.
• Why aspects of human existence are less about the origin of life and more about quanta (photons).
• How and why evolution is quantifiable and what we can then infer about living versus nonliving elements.

When he began his professorship of biophysics, Dr. Annila of the University of Helsinki thought about the prevalence of change and motion in evolution and how those are the basis of physics. This made him wonder why there was no equation for evolution. Thus began an exploration of the time and space relationship and his applying physics laws to the theory of evolution.

He begins by explaining aspects of human existence like this: when our bodies give off heat, this act takes place over time. Furthermore, this heat is composed of photons. So as we lose energy, we also experience time; in fact, energy moves through time. Furthermore, this means we can speaks of this in terms of a mathematical formula. Light (or photons) has a wavelength, which divided by the speed of light produces time. Time has become a concrete quantity rather than an abstract.

He goes on to show how this means our distinctions of life versus nonlife are false—there really is no “origin of life” question, because the question is irrelevant. By altering how we approach aspects of human existence, he hopes to alter our understanding of evolutionary change.

For more, see his university home page: https://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/aannila/arto/index

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