title: [Order by hazard].
abstract: Whether a system evolves under the influence of interactions at distance or because of incoherent displacements, due in particular to thermal agitation, it tends toward a state in which compensation exists between the factors likely to influence the arrangement of its components. This state cannot be a random one. It will, of necessity, present some particularity and therefore a certain order. Thermal agitation randomly brings closer together components between which there exist attractions which tend to form structures. The existence of a simple structure opens up the possibility of formation of more complex structures. It is entirely plausible that elementary structures, sites of chemical exchanges coordinated with the environment, primitive living beings were formed purely by chance. These beings might then have given rise, also strictly by chance, to other more highly developed structures which were sites of more complex phenomena. Due to the inevitable existence of fluctuations, it is normal that beings gradually engendered by generations of different individuals would become ever more complex and increasingly different.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biologie Physicochimique, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tonnelat
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D015394:Molecular Structure; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models