PRE-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



CRYSTALS AND COLLOIDS 



The formation of crystalline solids certainly consti- 

 tutes an important step in the development of matter 

 of higher extropy. In the crystal, the individual atoms 

 are arranged in an orderly fashion very much different 

 from the random distribution that exists in liquefied 

 matter. It is of interest to consider that a crystal con- 

 stitutes matter which has the ability to form more of 

 its particular kind of structure if placed in proper sur- 

 roundings. Such a proper environment, for example, 

 is a super-saturated solution, which may therefore be 

 regarded as a nutrient medium for the crystal. Conse- 

 quently under proper conditions the crystal has the 

 property of creating a local increase of extropy in the 

 region of its immediate surroundings, which however 

 is offset by an increase in the entropy of the less imme- 

 diate surroundings. In other words it has the ability, 

 under certain conditions, to reproduce its own struc- 

 ture. 



The significance of these properties of crystals has 

 been generally recognized and the analogy to some of 

 the properties of living matter has been given ample 

 consideration. Ordinary crystals should of course not 

 be considered to be alive. They require the molecules 

 or ions that constitute their substance in order to grow. 

 Living matter on the other hand is able to rebuild its 

 own very complex structures from substances simpler 

 than its own configurations. Nevertheless the analogy 



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