Law and Order

From personal experience, you likely know that all things tend toward disorder. As any homeowner has observed, when left to themselves, things tend to break down or disintegrate. Scientists refer to this tendency as “the second law of thermodynamics.” We can see this law at work daily. If left alone, a new automobile or bicycle will become scrap. Abandon a building and it will become a ruin. What about the universe? The law applies there too. So you might think that the order throughout the universe should give way to complete disorder.

However, this does not seem to be happening to the universe, as Professor of Mathematics Roger Penrose discovered when he studied the state of disorderliness (or, entropy) of the observable universe. A logical way to interpret such findings is to conclude that the universe started off in an ordered state and is still highly organized. Astrophysicist Alan Lightman noted that scientists “find it mysterious that the universe was created in such a highly ordered condition.” He added that “any successful theory of cosmology should ultimately explain this entropy problem”—why the universe has not become chaotic.

In fact, our existence is contrary to this recognized law. So why is it that we are alive here on earth? As previously noted, that is a basic question that we should want answered.

Appendix

“Architectural Units of the Universe”

That is how a modern encyclopedia of science describes the chemical elements. There is amazing variety among the elements of our earth; some of them are rare; others are abundant. Elements such as gold may attract the human eye. Others are gases that we do not even see, such as nitrogen and oxygen. Each element is made of a certain kind of atom. How the atoms are constructed and relate to one another bespeaks economy and awesome organization in chartlike order.

About 300 years ago, only 12 elements were known—antimony, arsenic, bismuth, carbon, copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, sulfur, and tin. As more were discovered, scientists noticed that the elements reflected a distinct order. Because there were gaps in the order, scientists such as Mendeleyev, Ramsay, Moseley, and Bohr theorized the existence of unknown elements and their characteristics. Those elements were subsequently discovered just as predicted. Why could those scientists predict that there were forms of matter that were unknown at the time?

Well, the elements follow a natural numerical order based on the structure of their atoms. This is a proven law. Thus, school textbooks can set out a periodic table of elements in rows and columns—hydrogen, helium, and so on.

The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology observes: “Few systemizations in the history of science can rival the periodic concept as a broad revelation of the order of the physical world. . . . Whatever new elements may be discovered in the future, it is certain they will find a place in the periodic system, conforming to its order and exhibiting the proper familial characteristics.”

When the elements are arranged in the rows and columns of the periodic table, a remarkable relationship is seen between elements that share a column. For example, in the last column are located helium (No. 2), neon (No. 10), argon (No. 18), krypton (No. 36), xenon (No. 54), and radon (No. 86). These are gases that glow brightly when an electric discharge passes through them, and they are used in some light bulbs. Also, they do not react easily with various elements, as do some other gases.

Yes, the universe—even down to its atomic particles—reveals astonishing harmony and order. What is responsible for such order, harmony, and variety among the building blocks of the universe?