Introduction to WISE theme issue, part II

From galaxies to gemstones, sharks to supernovae, tornadoes to telephonesour universe has generated a dazzling array of novel patterns and ordered behaviour over cosmic history.For many decades, scholars from diverse disciplines across the sciences, engineering and humanities have contemplated the nature of novelty-generating systems.What principles guide evolution and describe the genesis of complexity?How universal are these processes?What are the roles of information and entropy-or are other metrics more auspicious?What real-world systems provide case studies for testing the many provocative ideas that have burst forward?The Workshop on Information, Selection, and Evolution (WISE), held from 23 to 25 October 2024 at the Carnegie Institution for Science's campus in Washington, DC, brought together over 80 leading figures, each with their own unique intellectual rearing, to discuss shared interests and generate new interdisciplinary collaborations that will move science forward in exciting and unexpected directions.In part II of the WISE theme issue, one will find a new conceptual framework for novelty generation and origin events [1], a paper on the generalization of biological learning [2], thoughts on how cosmic evolution might serve to unify natural sciences and help remedy human society [3], an investigation of the role of entropy production in microbial food web structure [4], suggestions for experimental pathways to understanding life's adaptability beyond Earth [5], a two-part treatise on evolution by natural induction [6,7] and a description of how evolution generates information through novel improvisations [8].