The current picture of matter that physics offers us is unable to explain how life evolved from inorganic materials. The problem seems to be with physics defining matter simply in terms of its building blocks. But a new theory suggests that the assembly history of material objects, how they came to have the complexity they do, is an essential property of all matter. Lee Cronin argues that this assembly theory of matter shows how evolution by modification and selection isn’t simply the preserve of life but describes how all matter develops.

For centuries, scientists have struggled to explain how life could have emerged and evolved from the inanimate matter described by physics and chemistry. On the surface, living organisms seem fundamentally different from non-living things. While physics perfectly describes the behaviour of fundamental particles like electrons and protons, it falls short when applied to complex phenomena like biological evolution. Curiously, many experts do not see this as a fundamental problem, as they expect that the solution to this problem will someday be found in fundamental physics. Thus far this has not been possible and there seems to be no prospect that a satisfactory bottom-up explanation, from elementary particles to life, will be found. Something is fundamentally wrong with our current view of reality.