Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T01:47:52.234Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The potential for detecting ‘life as we don't know it’ by fractal complexity analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2013

Armando Azua-Bustos
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Santiago, Chile e-mail: ajazua@uc.cl Centro de Estudios Generales, Universidad de los Andes, Centro de Estudios Generales, Av. San Carlos de Apoquindo 2200, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
Cristian Vega-Martínez
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata (CCT La Plata, CONICET – UNLP), Argentina

Abstract

Finding life in the Universe entirely different to the one evolved on Earth is probable. This is a significant constraint for life-detecting instruments that were sent and may be sent elsewhere in the solar system, as how could we detect life as ‘we don't know it’? How could we detect something when we have no prior knowledge of its composition or how it looks like? Here we argue that disregarding the type of lifeform that could be envisioned, all must share in common the attribute of being entities that decrease their internal entropy at the expense of free energy obtained from its surroundings. As entropy quantifies the degree of disorder in a system, any envisioned lifeform must have a higher degree of order than its supporting environment. Here, we show that by using fractal mathematics analysis alone, one can readily quantify the degree of entropy difference (and thus, their structural complexity) of living processes (lichen growths and plant growing patterns in this case) as distinct entities separate from its similar abiotic surroundings. This approach may allow possible detection of unknown forms of life based on nothing more than entropy differentials of complementary datasets. Future explorations in the solar system, like Mars or Titan, may incorporate this concept in their mission planning in order to detect potential endemic lifeforms.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avery, J. (2003). Information Theory and Evolution. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., London, p. 217.Google Scholar
Baranger, M.C. (2011). Complexity, and Entropy: a Physics Talk for Non-Physicists. MIT-CTP-3112. Available online at: http://www.necsi.edu/faculty/baranger.html.Google Scholar
Borthagaray, A.I., Fuentes, M.A. & Marquet, P.A. (2010). Vegetation pattern formation in a fog-dependent ecosystem. J. Theor. Biol. 265, 1826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burlando, B. (1993). The fractal geometry of evolution. J. Theor. Biol. 163, 161172.Google Scholar
Cornelissen, J.H., Lang, S.I., Soudzilovskaia, N.A. & During, H.J. (2007). Comparative cryptogam ecology: a review of bryophyte and lichen traits that drive biogeochemistry. Ann. Bot. 99, 9871001.Google Scholar
Crutcheld, J.P. & Young, K. (1989). Inferring statistical complexity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 105108.Google Scholar
Davies, P.C., Benner, S.A., Cleland, C.E., Lineweaver, C.H., McKay, C.P. & Wolfe-Simon, F. (2009). Signatures of a shadow biosphere. Astrobiology 9, 241249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guarino, V., Guaccio, A., Netti, P.A. & Ambrosio, L. (2010). Image processing and fractal box counting: user-assisted method for multi-scale porous scaffold characterization. J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 21, 31093118.Google Scholar
Kleidon, A. (2010). Life, hierarchy, and the thermodynamic machinery of planet Earth. Phys. Life Rev. 7, 424460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Losa, G.A. (2009). The fractal geometry of life. Riv. Biol. 102, 2959.Google Scholar
Lovelock, J. (1979) GAIA – A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press, p. 176.Google Scholar
Passalacqua, K.D., Varadarajan, A., Ondov, B.D., Okou, D.T., Zwick, N.E. & Bergman, N.H. (2009). Structure and complexity of a bacterial transcriptome. J. Bacteriol. 191, 32033211.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Pascua, M.A., De Vicente, G., Calvo, J.P. & Pérez-López, R. (2003). Similarities between recent seismic activity and paleoseismites during the late miocene in the external Betic Chain (Spain): relationship by ‘b’ value and the fractal dimension. J. Struct. Geol. 25, 749763.Google Scholar
Schrödinger, E. (1945). What is Life–the Physical Aspect of the Living Cell. The Macmillan , p. 91.Google Scholar
Soille, P. & Rivet, J.-P. (1996). On the validity of fractal dimension measurements in image analysis. J. Vis. Commun. Image Rep. 7, 217229.Google Scholar