Arto Annila received his PhD in Physics from Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology). Subsequently, he completed MSc in Biochemistry at the University of Helsinki and earned a docentship in Physical Chemistry. After nomination to the Professor of Biophysics, he began to look for the physical foundations of evolutionary theory.
Starting from the atomistic axiom, Annila derived the equation of evolution from statistical mechanics pioneered by Ludwig Boltzmann by opening the many-body theory for flows of quanta. In short, the flows of quanta naturally select ways to attain thermodynamic balance in the least time. Thus, the least-time consumption of free energy explains why evolution happens (causality), why natural selection results in the ubiquitous patterns (universality), and why natural processes seem goal-oriented (teleology). Furthermore, the theory explains the emergence of standards, such as chirality consensus, and the re-emergence of hierarchies, such as food webs. Finally, the evolutionary equation reveals that the future remains non-determinate yet bounded by free energy as everything depends on everything.
While statistical physics of open quantized systems makes sense of a wide range of phenomena (see publications), Annila continues to be interested in finding even a single case, either falsifying the atomistic axiom or negating the least-time quest for thermodynamic balance.
