Ongoing debates: ‘Universal biology’ as the principle cause?

The fourth view claims that all possible life anywhere in the universe is constrained in some ways and so shares a common universe-wide fitness landscape. Universal chemical and physical laws dictate what elements and compounds can be used for what purposes, for example, water is likely to be present in all life. These constraints on life may be so tight that some of the solutions found in terrestrial life will turn out to be the only ones that are viable. This would mean that life could only occur on approximately Earth-like planets, and importantly, that life on Earth is an instance of a ‘universal biology.’ This view supports the opposite conclusion to the one arrived at by Monod; the driving force in terrestrial biological history has not been primarily chance, but is in part necessity, i.e. nature’s adherence to universal laws.

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