Robert Hazen

Aug 2, 2024 | todayschronic.com | Shen Ridenbaugh |Michael Wong |Robert Hazen

Last year, scientists proposed that all complex systems in the universe evolve in a similar way to life - including stars, planets and technology. Now, researchers claim they've found evidence of this unifying law in minerals. The new study is a proof of concept for the recently proposed "missing law" that explains why so many complex systems appear to become more complex over time.

Jul 19, 2024 | bigthink.com | Robert Hazen

Robert Hazen: I am a mineralogist, and I love minerals. They're incredibly important in our lives. Virtually all the raw materials we use for technology, automobiles, and agriculture depend on minerals. But what else? Minerals tell stories because they're information-rich. Every mineral is a time capsule, telling us about the four and a half billion-year history of our planet. We wouldn't be here or able to talk about minerals if it weren't for the minerals themselves.

Jul 12, 2024 | bigthink.com | Robert Hazen

Robert Hazen: A colleague asked me, "Was Mineral 'X' around at time 'Y' in Earth history?" He's putting a time axis on mineralogy, and this led to the idea of mineral evolution. You start with just a few dozen minerals that form planets in the earliest stage of our solar system, then 100 minerals, then 300 minerals, then 800 minerals, and 3,000 minerals. When life comes along, it makes another 3,000 minerals. That's evolution—an increase in diversity, patterning, and complexity.

Jun 28, 2024 | bigthink.com | Robert Hazen

Robert Hazen: One of the greatest unanswered questions in science is: Is this a lonely universe in which we are the only living world? Or is the cosmos teeming with life with lots of civilizations asking that exact same question? I think if we're going to find an answer, it may very well lie in the realm of minerals 'cause minerals tell stories. When we look at Earth's early minerals, we see a dramatic change. Before life, there were maybe 1,000 maybe 2,000 mineral species.

Jun 24, 2024 | bigthink.com | Robert Hazen

Robert Hazen: I have to make a confession here. I have to be honest. We could be wrong. We could be spectacularly wrong. But it's also possible that science is missing a profound truth about the cosmos. We have these 10 or so laws of nature, only one of which currently has an arrow of time. That's the second law of thermodynamics, the increase in entropy—it's disorder; it's decay. We all grow old. We all die. But the second law doesn't explain why things evolve; why life emerges from non-life.