One theory for Abiogenesis or the origin of life is that life is an emergent phenomenon resulting from heat dissipation. I guess it started with Schrodinger pointing out that life seemingly violates the Second Law, at least without specific conditions, and then suggesting looking for those conditions. I think the suggestion is that if you create more entropy in ur environment like through heat dissipation, combine with eating relatively ordered substances, then relatively you can maintain internal order without upsetting physics.

I read this interesting fact that RNA apparently dissipates heat more efficiently than life any other molecule. And so I guess this excites RNA world hypothesizers, who believe RNA structures could have formed on the surface of the ocean absorbing heat from the sun, and dissipating it into the ocean, and assembling into whatever shapes dissipate the heat best.

This all being said, it is a ways off from being a complete theory to the origin of life, but approaching it from a thermodynamic perspective seems to be intriguing. Is there anyone with anything to input about this? I never really made it to stat mech, and apparently even when you do, you spend most of your time studying systems in equilibrium and isolation.