Thy Fearful Symmetry

Irradiate maize, and it will begin frantically shuffling its chromosomes. Starve E.coli and it will accelerate its mutation rate. Many organisms have this response to stress. They throw the wildest possibilities at the wall to see what might stick, which is to say, what strange version of themselves might survive. They create disorder that might restore order.

From a chaotic disk of gas, a planet forms and migrates into a stable orbit. Twin moons are brought into resonance. For every turn Enceladus takes around Saturn...