III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

2. A Consilience Unity as Physics, Biology and People Become One

Nurisso, Marco, et al. Nurisso, Marco, et al. Higher-order Laplacian renormalization. Nature Physics. April 2025.. Nature Physics. April, 2025. Namur, Belgium theorists post a latest cross-integration of physical principles with the complexity sciences based on their distinctive relational phenomena. As a result, a deep rooting of these vitalities in nature’s conducive ground is achieved, along with a recognition of self-similarities across the cosmic, atomic and biomic infinities. In springtime this year, entries like this, M. Buehler (arXiv:2503.18852), N. Gabriel, et al (arXiv:2502.15913) and a growing number can serve to represent a 2025 whole scale consilience as life and land, wuman and uniVerse come together again as a unified procreativity.

The renormalization group RG is a pillar of scaling, scale invariance and universality in physics. Recently, this theory has been adapted to complex networks with pairwise interactions based on diffusion dynamics. However, there is a need to extend these methods to higher-order networks. Here we propose a RG scheme by way of cross-order Laplacians, which allow the description of diffusion hyperedge processes. We validate on synthetic higher-level systems to detect order-specific scale-invariant profiles of real-world domains. (Abstract)

Nussinov, Zohar, et al. Inference of Hidden Structures in Complex Physical Systems by Multi-Scale Clustering. arXiv:1503.01626. American and Indian physicists contend that condensed matter/statistical mechanic studies, which are lately coming to assume an intricately networked nature, have found a persistent tendency to form modular communities. Such whole units, with their own integrity while immersed in multiple layers, are a prime, natural feature. And if we might avail, a much better society could be conceived as many, interlinked communal villages in a local and global organic, physiological milieu.

We survey the application of a relatively new branch of statistical physics--"community detection"-- to data mining. In particular, we focus on the diagnosis of materials and automated image segmentation. Community detection describes the quest of partitioning a complex system involving many elements into optimally decoupled subsets or communities of such elements. We review a multiresolution variant which is used to ascertain structures at different spatial and temporal scales. Significant patterns are obtained by examining the correlations between different independent solvers. Similar to other combinatorial optimization problems in the NP complexity class, community detection exhibits several phases. (Abstract)

Pachter, Jonathon, et al.. Entropy, irreversibility and inference at the foundations of statistical physics. Nature Reviews Physics.. 6/382, 2024. Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University theorists including Ken Dill propose a timely contrast of prior many-body theories with a revised 2020s frontier by way of non-equilibrium, maximum entropy agencies. By so doing they achieve a more suitable conceptual basis for a deep natural vitality from which life’s occasion and evolutionary development can go forth to its crucial Earthuman comprehension.

Statistical physics relates the properties of macroscale systems to the distributions of their microscale agents. A main factor has been the maximization of entropy, an equilibrium variational principle. Recent work has sought extensions to non-equilibrium fast and slow processes in the fluctuation relations of stochastic thermodynamics via large deviation theory. When recognized as an inference principle, an entropy maximum can be generalized for non-equilibria and applied to other entropic phases. Our goal is to enhance crosstalk among disparate researchers working to compare and contrast different approaches while pointing to common roots. (Abstract)

We first note that two disparate perspectives are used in statistical physics. From its earliest days, it was framed in terms of the positions and momenta of collisional particles, their conservation of energy, and puzzles of irreversibility and disorder. The second perspective is the language of probabilities, which extends the reach of statistical physics to problems and processes well beyond functions of temperature and pressure. Newtonian mechanics is a limited starting point for general principles of model-making, especially for myriad living systems whose constituents are themselves high-dimensional. (1)

The early conceptions of statistical physics saw systems as large ensembles of replicates, with probabilities as frequencies, and assumptions of chaotic collisions. A newer view holds that maximizing entropy is a workable way of drawing inferences about probabilities where the user is responsible for a proper model of physics, the equivalencies among states, and choice of constraints. The same maximization of entropy procedure applies to non-equilibrium predictions of forces and flows. This opens up a broad area of dynamical modeling applicable to situations far-from-equilibrium and with non-linearities and even few-particle distributions. (15)

Pauls, James, et al. Quantum Coherence and Entanglement in the Avian Compass. Physical Review E. 87/062704, 2013. Reviewed more in Cooperative Societies, Purdue University and LANL physicists including Sabre Kais advance the reconception and unity of physics and life as they find deep similarities and explanations. The artificial quantum-classical barrier is being removed to reveal a creative reiteration in kind and time from universe to human.

Perunov, Nikolai, et al. Statistical Physics of Adaption. arXiv.1412.1875. As the Abstract notes, MIT Physics of Living Systems Group researchers including Jeremy England contribute to the ongoing synthesis of these fields of study which serve to integrate and root life’s evolution, and our collaborative comprehension, within a fertile cosmic ground.

All living things exhibit adaptations that enable them to survive and reproduce in the natural environment that they inhabit. From a biological standpoint, it has long been understood that adaptation comes from natural selection, whereby maladapted individuals do not pass their traits effectively to future generations. However, we may also consider the phenomenon of adaptation from the standpoint of physics, and ask whether it is possible to delineate what the difference is in terms of physical properties between something that is well-adapted to its surrounding environment, and something that is not. In this work, we undertake to address this question from a theoretical standpoint. Building on past fundamental results in far-from-equilibrium statistical mechanics, we demonstrate a generalization of the Helmholtz free energy for the finite-time stochastic evolution of driven Newtonian matter. By analyzing this expression term by term, we are able to argue for a general tendency in driven many-particle systems towards self-organization into states formed through exceptionally reliable absorption and dissipation of work energy from the surrounding environment. (Abstract)

Picoli, Sergio, et al. Universal Bursty Behavior in Human Violent Conflicts. Nature Scientific Reports. 4/4773, 2014. Universidade Estadual de Maringa, Brazil, and Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, systems physicists quantify that even the most chaotic carnage can yet be seen to exhibit a common structure and activity. However and whenever might we finally altogether come to realize and understand, as so implied, that an independent mathematical source is in formative effect everywhere? Then as so edified be able to at last to declare a truce and break free from this obsession?

Understanding the mechanisms and processes underlying the dynamics of collective violence is of considerable current interest. Recent studies indicated the presence of robust patterns characterizing the size and timing of violent events in human conflicts. Since the size and timing of violent events arises as the result of a dynamical process, we explore the possibility of unifying these observations. By analyzing available catalogs on violent events in Iraq (2003–2005), Afghanistan (2008–2010) and Northern Ireland (1969–2001), we show that the inter-event time distributions (calculated for a range of minimum sizes) obeys approximately a simple scaling law which holds for more than three orders of magnitude. This robust pattern suggests a hierarchical organization in size and time providing a unified picture of the dynamics of violent conflicts. (Abstract)

Despite the fact that human activities and natural phenomena are very different in nature, it has been suggested that both could be described by a common approach. For example, the occurrence of earthquakes has been related to the relaxation of accumulated stress after reaching a threshold as in self-organized criticality (SOC). Analogously, violent events in human conflicts could be associated with a threshold mechanism. In this scenario, a description of human conflicts in terms of SOC seems plausible. Our findings are consistent with this possibility, providing quantitative support for the analogy between patterns in human conflicts and natural phenomena exhibiting SOC. (3)

Popkin, Gabriel. The Physics of Life. Nature. 529/16, 2016. A report on the growing realization of inherent material propensities, via the new field of “active matter” research, to organize and arrange into similar biological forms and motions from proteins to people.

From flocking birds to swarming molecules, physicists are seeking to understand ‘active matter’ – and looking for a fundamental theory of the living world.

Prechl, Jozsef. Statistical thermodynamics of self-organization in the adaptive immune system. arXiv:2306.04665. A senior Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest researcher contributes to the ongoing integral rooting of viable, persistent organisms withi a conducive, substantial milieu which is then seen to spontaneously vivify into a processive animate development. A Table of cardinal features from physical self-organization to an adaptive immunity enlists a thermal energy, dynamic non-linearity, multiple interactions, and more.

A steady flow of energy can be seen to arrange matter and information in particular ways by a process known as self-organization. Adaptive immunity is an instance implemented as a complex adaptive biological system that vivifies and informs itself by the maintenance of a steady state which can be modeled mathematically and physically. Here I summarize arguments for such a statistical thermodynamic interpretation of immune function and key variables that characterize self-organization in the context of biochemical energies, and network structurations. (Abstract)

Provata, Astero, et al. DNA Viewed as an Out-of-Equilibrium Structure. Physical Review E. 89/052105, 2014. Reviewed more in Genome Complex Systems as a good example of an integral synthesis of life and law.

Pruessner, Gunnar. Complex Systems, Non-Equilibrium Dynamics and Self-Organization. Entropy. Online January, 2017. The Imperial College London mathematician invites papers for a Special mid 2017 Issue on this subject phenomena. We record because its description note Active Matter as an exemplary instance.

Over the last two decades or so, the notion of complex systems has found its way into many different areas of science and humanities, allowing for a quantitative understanding of phenomena that were traditionally studied in a more qualitative fashion. A particularly attractive aspect of complex systems is the emergence of co-operative phenomena, or self-organisation, often driven by non-equilibrium dynamics that relies on an external (energy) source. Such systems seem to be all around us, and govern and represent all that we do and are. Particular interest in self-organisation and non-equilibrium systems in the form of "active matter" has been generated within the biological sciences with the continued emphasis of more quantitative methods. Pattern or tissue formation may be a particularly good example of a phenomenon suitable for the present issue. Other good examples may be entropy production in sociological and financial systems or recent developments in self-organised criticality.

Ramaswamy, Sriram. The Mechanics and Statistics of Active Matter. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. 1/323, 2010. The Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, biophysicist introduces the concept of “active matter” to represent novel appreciations, as the quotes say, of a natural materiality suffused by its own internal agency and dynamic motion. The phrase has gained currency in such 2013 writings by Cristina Marchetti, et al and Mark Buchanan (search each).

Active particles contain internal degrees of freedom with the ability to take in and dissipate energy and, in the process, execute systematic movement. Examples include all living organisms and their motile constituents such as molecular motors. This article reviews recent progress in applying the principles of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and hydrodynamics to form a systematic theory of the behaviour of collections of active particles -- active matter -- with only minimal regard to microscopic details. A unified view of the many kinds of active matter is presented, encompassing not only living systems but inanimate analogues. (Abstract)

The viewpoint of this review is that living matter can fruitfully be regarded as a kind of material and studied using the tools of condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics; that there is a practical way to encode into such a description those features of the living state that are relevant to materials science; and that the results of such an endeavour will help us better understand, control and perhaps mimic active cellular matter. (325).

A comprehensive theory of this ubiquitous type of condensed matter is a natural imperative for the physicist, and should yield a catalogue of the generic behaviours, such as nonequilibrium phases and phase transitions, the nature of correlations and response, and characteristic instabilities. Second, therefore, the generic tendencies emerging from the theory of active matter, unless suppressed by specific mechanisms, must arise in vivo, which is why biologists should care about it. (325-326) The reader should keep in mind that theories of active matter were formulated not in response to a specific puzzle posed by experiments but rather to incorporate living, metabolizing, spontaneously moving matter into the condensed-matter fold. (326)

Riiska, Calvin, et al. The Physics of Animal Behavior: Form, Function, and Interactions. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. Volume 13, 2024. In this latest chapter Emory University and University of Colorado biophysicists including Orit Peleg contribute to a current consilience of nonlinear complex system phenomena as it becomes amenable to and reflective of, in this exemplary case, with a deep physical source.

Understanding the physics of behavior in animals that has lately gained much attention. As a result, in this review we delve into the intricate temporal and spatial scales for both individual members and collective assemblies. Our work involves experimental and theoretical approaches which highlight the importance of feedback loops, emergent behavior, and environmental factors. Novel technologies such as high-speed imaging and tracking can then be used to validate physics-based models of complex 3D network dynamics across many species. We also consider applications in artificial intelligence, identify new areas for study, and envision further breakthroughs that reveal nature’s clever, cooperative behavioral repertoire. (Excerpt)

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