Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature

Of the codified laws of nature, famously, only one inscribes a direction to time: the dreaded second law of thermodynamics, which declares that the disorder of a closed system tends to increase over time. New shoes eventually scuff, our bodies weaken and die. Yet can this truly be it? Our senses tell us that miraculous order constantly emerges, too: children grow and learn; spontaneous patterns manifest in murmurations of starlings.

Star scientists Robert M. Hazen and Michael L. Wong argue that, indeed, there must be a second “arrow of time”—a heretofore missing law that explains how nature insistently creates intricate organization and complexity. Evolution, they boldly propose, is a universal phenomenon—not only in biology, but in the entire atomic, chemical, mineral, and physical universe. Elegantly written and deeply moving, Time’s Second Arrow shows how our cosmic inheritance includes, even alongside loss and decay, a drive toward wondrous invention and progress—ultimately revising our understanding of the universe and our place within it.