ABSTRACT
Science is better equipped to study the state known as equilibrium or near-equilibrium than it is to handle far-from-equilibrium phenomena. The concept of emergent complexity or self-organisation is an area of physics that has found wide application in explaining many commonly observed physical and chemical processes, and is considered by a growing number of scientists to be highly relevant to the particular problem of life's origin. One of the most terrifying and destructive examples of a far-from-equilibrium phenomenon seen in nature and which displays emergent properties is the tornado. Most serious discussions about how life might have commenced on earth begin at the molecular level with an attempt to define what are generally considered to be the minimum set of properties that a rudimentary pseudo-living system is likely to need. A somewhat different approach to the origin-of-life issue has been taken by the theoretical biochemist Stuart Kauffman.
