However, evolutionary biologists don’t agree with the way this approach reconfigures fundamental understanding of “selection” and “evolution.”What exactly is life? In theory, this could help scientists better understand how life formed—and not only on our own planet. “AT is attempting to solve what life is,” Sara Walker, a lead researcher on the 2023 paper, said in an email. Essentially, the more complex an object becomes, the less likely that it will be identically duplicated without some kind of evolution taking place. “What we are aiming to capture is how the atmospheres of inhabited worlds might be more assembled than non-living planets,” says Walker.