"Revolutionary Lab Testing Challenges Physics' Inability to Explain Life"
Physics has long struggled to explain the emergence of life, but a groundbreaking new theory called assembly theory is being tested in the lab. This theory proposes that complexity and information are at the heart of life, and it focuses on the processes by which complex configurations are constructed from simpler building blocks. The theory introduces the concept of an "assembly index" to quantify the minimal steps required to build an object, and it has been experimentally tested using mass spectrometry. The theory also offers insights into the origin of life and suggests that there is a threshold at which molecules become so complex that they start using information to make copies of themselves, giving rise to life. Further experiments are planned to investigate the origin of life and explore the predictability of the emergence of complexity. Assembly theory has the potential to provide a new understanding of matter and uncover universal principles of hierarchical construction.
