EVOLUTION AND ENTROPY 311 



verse is said to have arisen by explosion or expansion. Using 

 a law projected on theoretical grounds by Lemaitre and con- 

 firmed by Hubble, that the recession velocity of a nebula is 

 proportional to its distance away, the date of the Big Squeeze 

 can be set at about 10^*^ years,"^ although, as Lemaitre argues, 

 the velocity of recession may not always have been uniform.'® 



Like the other current cosmological theory to be mentioned 

 later, the advocates of a primeval matrix account for the 

 known abundances of various elements and must render an 

 account of the relative numbers of heavier and lighter elements 

 in various places throughout the cosmos. The universe as a 

 whole is estimated to be about 55 per cent hydrogen, 44 per 

 cent helium, and one percent of the heavier elements. 



In the language of Lyttleton: 



Hydrogen is to be regarded as constituting the primitive material 

 of the universe, from which all other elements are somehow formed. 

 This conclusion has a highly important implication, because it 

 means that in its present state neither the sun nor any similar star 

 can produce the heavy elements that are essential for the formation 

 of the planets, such as our Earth, in which as we have seen it is the 

 heavy elements that are abundant and the hydrogen by comparison 

 exceedingly rare.^'^ 



It will not be fruitful, for purposes of this paper, to outline 

 the theories, such as supernovation,^^ designed to explain the 

 formation and distribution of the heavier elements.-^ It is 

 important only to note that this is termed an evolutionary 

 process. Shapley writes that " the evolution of matter appears 

 to be a synthesis inside the stars of the heavy elements out 

 of hydrogen, which is accepted as the primordial, abundant, 

 and simple No. 1 element."^" Then too, the whole process 



31 



^® Shapley, art. cit., p. 32. 

 "* Op. cit., p. 79. 



2T 

 28 



R. Lyttleton, The Modem Universe (New York, 1956) p. 137. 



Cf. H. Bondi, The Universe at Large (New York, 1960) pp. 52-55. 

 ^*E. Findlay-Freundlich, Cosmology (Chicago, 1951) p. 50. 

 '° Shapley, art. cit., p. 35. 

 ^^ In all the discussions of evolution throughout this paper, it is to be understood 



