Evolving Condensed Matter (ECM) is regular matter in a special transforming aggregate state. Some of its elements undergo chemical and structural transformations. These elements exert forces and displace other elements. This causes motions and reconstructions of the whole body.
The simplest example of ECM is a material body during an ongoing chemical condensation, in which its atoms build missing chemical bonds with each other. For instance, it is a protein molecule during folding. The folding protein moves along its environment. It also reconstructs this environment.
Another example of ECM is the deep interior of a star, where hydrogen fuses into heavier elements. These transformations change packing and cause reconstructions of the stellar condensed matter.
During such transitions, chemical or nuclear energy transforms into mechanical energy. Therefore, the evolving matter is far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Since most of the observable matter in the universe is concentrated in stars, the evolving state is the most common state of matter. For this reason, it deserves a thorough investigation.
Biological evolving condensed matter
The most important reason to study the evolving state is the fact that it relates to the living state of matter.
The cell synthesizes high-molecular-weight products from low-molecular-weight precursors. From the point of view of physics, it undergoes the process of chemical condensation (building additional bonds between atoms). These chemical transformations cause numerous local reconstructions. All these reconstructions interact and combine into coordinated collective reconstructions. The largest one is known as the cytoplasmic streaming or cyclosis. This autonomous motion is the primary indication of life in cells.
A more complex evolving condensed matter is made of the living cells. In particular, it is a cerebral neural network. The living neurons establish and break material connections with each other. They exchange signals using these connections. In other words, the living brain reconstructs while performing autonomous actions.
The Living State of Matter
The reconstructions pertaining to the living matter have some characteristic traits. Most importantly, the chemical and structural transformations mutually cause each other. The reconstructions carry out transfer of chemical precursors, and cause further chemical transformations. Those bring forth new reconstructions. All the irreversible events are interlinked by means of the cause-and-effect relations.
A standalone living organism emerges when this chain of irreversible events gets looped into a self-sustaining circulation. The living organism stimulates its own further activity.
A living body is composed of a large number of similar elements. The reconstructions replace some used elements with equivalent fresh elements. Consequently, the reconstructions do not change the body structure “beyond recognition”. Instead, they periodically return the body to a certain “initial state”. The organism reproduces sequences of very similar actions.
The self-stimulated reconstructions continue for as long as the organism has enough chemical resources. When these recourses are gone, the circulation must cease. However, the organism is an open system; it is immersed into a larger condensed matter body (the habitat). The organism reconstructs this habitat and implements certain material exchanges. It obtains new chemical precursors and gets rid of the toxic chemical waste. The organism sustains its active state for as long as there are some resources left in the habitat.
Self-ordering and self-organization
The biological reconstructions are caused by the atoms that break and build chemical bonds with their neighbors. In these processes, the atoms arrange their environments in an orderly fashion. It happens because the atoms want to obtain certain nearest neighbors (a particular number of them), and to build bonds with specific bond lengths and angles. All these local atomic reconstructions combine into the ordering collective reconstructions.
Since the reconstructions have this awesome ordering ability, the living matter exhibits self-organization and produces orderly arranged structures. In biology, this effect is known as morphogenesis. It proceeds gradually, over long periods of time, after many cycles of reconstructing. The corresponding effects in the evolving condensed matter are called the emergent phenomena.
An exemplary morphogenesis effect is the development of a chicken from a fertilized egg. The orderly arranged body of the chicken emerges because the atoms that comprise the molecules of the egg perform orderly actions. When the chicken depletes its chemical recourses, it must hatch and start feeding.
The emergent phenomena encompass the onset of life, its gradual evolution, and the rise of the increasingly complex life forms. All of them are driven by the same driving force. (Dissatisfied atoms breaking mediocre bonds and making improved bonds.) The first morphogenesis effect is the separation of the primordial evolving condensed matter into a better-ordered and more active organism and a disordered and inactive habitat.
Unfortunately, it is unknown whether the reconstructions driven by the thermonuclear fusion are ordering or disordering. For this reason, nothing is known about self-organization in the stellar matter. If this self-organization exists, the stars could develop very complex and very advanced structures. The stars could be the prevailing form of extraterrestrial life. (They could even be intelligent.)
Disconnected molecules vs. interlinked condensed matter
In the evolving condensed matter, all the local reconstructions are linked together. All the irreversible events are connected via a dense network of cause-and-effect relations.
There are also condensed matter bodies where chemical reactions take place, but no collective reconstructions emerge. This is condensed matter partitioned into separate molecules (liquid). When the molecules are disconnected from each other, the orderly atomic manipulations are not transferred onto other molecules. The cause-and-effect chains get broken. Usually, the ordered motions of the molecules are transformed into chaotic Brownian motion.
In simple liquids, the transfer of matter is controlled by random reconstructions. Different molecules react when they accidentally meet suitable partners. The liquids could be explained using regular chemistry, kinetics and thermodynamics. The interconnected condensed matter must be described by the physics of life, which is in the making.
It is very often assumed that the cellular protoplasm is liquid-like. It is a gross mistake. It is not liquid, but an orderly evolving polymer. This misconception is the main reason why science is still unable to give an accurate definition of life.
The living cells do allow random events. However, those are either auxiliary processes (diffusion of small molecules) or misfortune events (making faults in cellular structures). The organism successfully overcomes these disturbances. Life proper implies no haphazard processes. All the irreversible events are induced by the reconstructions of the organism’s body.