Evolution occurs, it holds, when these various configurations are subject to selection for useful functions. "We have well-documented laws that describe such everyday phenomena as forces, motions, gravity, electricity and magnetism and energy," Hazen said. The subsequent generation of stars that formed from the remnants of the prior generation then similarly forged almost 100 more elements. "Imagine a system of atoms or molecules that can exist in countless trillions of different arrangements or configurations," Hazen said. "Only a small fraction of all possible configurations will 'work' - that is, they will have some useful degree of function.

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Persons: Charles Darwin, Darwin, Robert Hazen, Hazen, Michael Wong, Jonathan Lunine, Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Carnegie Institution for Science, National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie, Cornell, Thomson Locations: British