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combine with oxygen to produce chemical energy. But whether it’s a turboprop or a cricket, we all must produce a bit more energy than we are able to use. We lose some fraction of our energy to the universe; the Second Law constrains us.
    From time to time, people pursue this bit of logic: If heat is always spreading out, won’t the entire cosmos cool down to some fantastically cold state, with nothing moving at all, anywhere? Will there be a heat death of the universe (sometimes known as the “Big Freeze”)? If such a state is destined to be, it will occur unimaginably far into the future. The universe is 13.8 billion years old, and from our vantage point, it seems to be just getting under way.
    Now back to those creationists who go all crazy insisting that since disorder always increases, and heat spreads out, Earth and everything on it must be getting more and more disordered. They are completely wrong that the Second Law puts a lid on complexity, because of their confusion (or deception?) about closed versus open systems. But it turns out that the analysis of the flow of energy, especially with the Second Law in mind, is a wonderful way to approach evolution. It provides a useful way to understand the way that living things use the energy that’s available. I hope you read every word of my book, but there’s more on this particular idea in the next chapter as well as in chapters 29 and 35. Read on.
    Evolution is also not random; it’s the opposite of random. One of Darwin’s most important insights is that natural selection is a means by which small changes can add complexity to an organism. With each generation of offspring, the beneficial modifications can be retained. Each mutation that doesn’t work as well in nature either dies off with the organism directly, or gets outcompeted by others of its kind in succeeding generations of offspring. It’s by the process of evolution that beneficial changes are added up and up and up.
    The fundamental energy needed for these beneficial mutations to evolve comes primarily from the Sun and the molten insides of Earth. Decaying organic matter consumed by living beings provides the chemical energy for each beneficial mutation. And each successive generation can carry all of the beneficial mutations. The mechanism for adding complexity is in having offspring. Each generation leading up to any given organism’s existence used energy from the Sun to provide its nutrition and warmth.
    Far from violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics, evolution is a powerful validation of the law. Embracing the idea that life adheres to the Second Law is akin to saying that evolution is not random; living things are directed and selected by competition. Life runs on energy, and likewise evolution runs on energy. A system that makes use of energy almost serves as a definition of life. There’s an intriguing new twist on thermodynamic energy and life; we mention it again in chapter 35. Earth’s whole ecosystem comprises organisms expending energy collectively, competing, and developing new forms. That is what makes life so marvelous: It channels energy into butterflies and Arabidopsis (first plant to have its genome sequenced) and sea jellies and people.
    That’s what makes the creationist viewpoint not just staggeringly wrong, but sadly impoverished. In twisting around the Second Law of Thermodynamics, they take a powerful tool for understanding the world and try to make it into a barrier to understanding instead. But there is a silver lining here. By inspiring people to learn the fundamental features of nature described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, creationists can actually inspire a richer appreciation of the mechanism of evolution.

 
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    BOTTOM-UP DESIGN
    When I was a senior in college, earning a degree in mechanical engineering, I was recruited by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company to work on the 747. Rest assured that I was