Non-equilibrium thermodynamics (original) (raw)
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Biology and Philosophy, 1986
Daniel R. Brooks and E. O. Wiley have proposed a theory of evolution in which fitness is merely a rate determining factor. Evolution is driven by nonequilibrium processes which increase the entropy and information content of species together. Evolution can occur without environmental selection, since increased complexity and organization result from the likely "capture" at the species level of random variations produced at the chemical level. Speciation can occur as the result of variation within the species which decreases the probability of sharing genetic information. Critics of the Brooks-Wiley theory argue that they have abused terminology from information theory and thermodynamics. In this paper I review the essentials of the theory, and give an account of hierarchical physical information systems within which the theory can be interpreted. I then show how the major conceptual objections can be answered.
The Thermodynamic Considerations of Biological Evolution; the Role of Entropy
Although Darwin's theory of biological evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology, it lacks proper physical foundations. We consider ecosystems as closed systems that only exchange energy and information, not matter with the outside. Moreover, predictable and periodic fluctuations in entropy, genetic diversity, population number, and resource availability form a cyclic process that can be analyzed via thermodynamic principles. The sun's energy input drives a reversed Carnot cycle in four phases. The first phase is low entropy, a fast-changing environment spurring genotype-phenotype plasticity. In phase 2, the growing population increases entropy, forming nutrient cycles via symbiotic, parasitic, and predator-prey relationships. In phase 3, competitive and chaotic interactions spread genetic innovations in the overpopulated, stressed ecosystem. Finally, in phase 4, extinction purges the non-evolvable genomes, but the surviving species carry the cycle's genetic innovat...
The Thermodynamic Considerations of Evolution; the Role of Entropy in Biological Complexity
2023
Darwin's theory of biological evolution became a cornerstone of modern biology. Predictable fluctuations in entropy, genetic diversity, population number, and resource availability in ecosystems turn evolution into a cyclic process, making the ecosystem's thermodynamic analysis possible. The sun's energy input drives a closed theoretical process, the reversed Carnot cycle. The Carnot cycle is divided into four distinct phases with standard features. The first phase is a low entropy, fast-changing environment, spurring phenotypic plasticity (phase 1). In phase 2, the population growth increases entropy, forming nutrient cycles via symbiotic, parasitic, predator-prey, and other interdependent relationships. In phase 3, the overpopulated, stressed ecosystem outgrows its boundaries; competitive and chaotic interactions spread genetic innovations through horizontal gene transfer. Finally, in phase 4, extinction purges the nonevolvable genomes, but the surviving species carry the cycle's genetic innovations and make renewal possible. Therefore, compression and expansion of the ecospace by energy fluxes (i.e., ecosystem dynamics) are potent drivers of change. Thus, the Darwinian concept is a cyclic sequestering of the sun's energy into genetic complexity. The second law of intellect shows that genetic complexity either increases or remains constant; it never decreases.
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2000
The science of thermodynamics is concerned with understanding the properties of inanimate matter in so far as they are determined by changes in temperature. The Second Law asserts that in irreversible processes there is a uni-directional increase in thermodynamic entropy, a measure of the degree of uncertainty in the thermal energy state of a randomly chosen particle in the aggregate. The science of evolution is concerned with understanding the properties of populations of living matter in so far as they are regulated by changes in generation time. Directionality theory, a mathematical model of the evolutionary process, establishes that in populations subject to bounded growth constraints, there is a uni-directional increase in evolutionary entropy, a measure of the degree of uncertainty in the age of the immediate ancestor of a randomly chosen newborn. This article reviews the mathematical basis of directionality theory and analyses the relation between directionality theory and statistical thermodynamics. We exploit an analytic relation between temperature, and generation time, to show that the directionality principle for evolutionary entropy is a nonequilibrium extension of the principle of a uni-directional increase of thermodynamic entropy. The analytic relation between these directionality principles is consistent with the hypothesis of the equivalence of fundamental laws as one moves up the hierarchy, from a molecular ensemble where the thermodynamic laws apply, to a population of replicating entities (molecules, cells, higher organisms), where evolutionary principles prevail.
Information, Entropy, and the Evolution of Living Systems
Brittonia, 1979
Information, entropy, and the evolution of living systems. Brittonia 31: 428-430. 1979.-~Selection at constant selective pressures results in the optimization of the average productivity within the system and an increase in the information content. The entropy increase through evolutionary time is, therefore, minimized. The "pattern" of entropy descriptions for ontogenetic (developmental) and phylogenetic (evolutionary) changes is shown to be different, and the latter is consistent with the Prigogine-Glansdorff principle for irreversible thermodynamic processes.
Natural Selection and Thermodynamics of Biological Evolution
The author of this article proposes that the representation of Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace's theory on " variation and selection " in the living world is a reflection of the action of hierarchical thermodynamics. Hierarchical thermodynamics is based on the law of temporal hierarchies and on the principle of substance stability. This principle enables the transmission of thermodynamic information between lower and higher structural hierarchies, in both forward and reverse direction: from nucleic acids to higher structural hierarchies and back. The principle of substance stability , in fact, is the main dynamical and thermodynamic mechanism of natural selection. It is alleged that the natural selection of atoms, molecules, organisms, populations, and other hierarchical structures takes place under the action of a variety of internal factors within organisms and the external environmental factors that can be considered as tropisms. Forms (design) of living organisms are formed as a result of spontaneous and non-spontaneous processes that lead to the adaptation of living systems to the environment. The selection is carried out as a result of the impacts of different energy types and the principle of substance stability at all levels of hierarchical structures. Actions of tropisms are presented by various members of the generalized Gibbs equation .
Population and Entropy Fluctuations in Ecology: A Thermodynamic Model of Biological Evolution
2024
Although Darwin's Theory of biological evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology, it lacks proper physical foundations. We applied the second law of thermodynamics to analyze biological evolution. Oscillating state variables such as entropy, energy, temperature, pressure, and volume can be conceptualized as an endothermic, reverse Carnot cycle. This endothermic process can accumulate genetic and morphological complexity through a multi-step, cyclic process. This cycle alternates between phases that favor order and maximum energy use (low entropy) or high entropy competition, where natural selection promotes minimal entropy production, favoring highly specialized species. Our argument reconciles the contradictions between the maximum power principle and Prigogine's minimum entropy production theory. Periodic mass extinctions act as pivotal reset points, removing highly specialized evolutionary dead ends while creating opportunities for surviving species to initiate new cycles of enhanced complexity. Notably, genetic material serves as an orthogonal, inert medium, carrying innovations forward and enabling the accumulation of biological complexity. Evolution's capacity to enhance complexity spontaneously through entropic effects suggests a conceptual extension: the "second law of intellect," a complementary principle to the second law of thermodynamics. This principle can aid a more in-depth understanding of the Darwinian Theory and inspire artificial intelligence research.
EVOLUTION IN THERMODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE: A HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANGLE
Zygon, 1995
Abstract. The recently suggested reformulation of Darwinian evolutionary theory, based on the thermodynamics of self-organizing processes, has strong philosophical implications. My claim is that the main philosophical merit of the thermodynamic approach, made especially clear in J.S. Wicken's work, is its insistence on the law-governed, continuous nature of evolution. I attempt to substantiate this claim following a historical analysis of beginning-of-the-century ideas on evolution and matter-life relationship, in particular, the fitness-of-the-environment-for-life theory of the Harvard physiologist L.J. Henderson. In addition, I point to an epistemological common ground underlying the studies of the “thermodynamics school” and other currently active research groups focusing on the emergence and evolution of biological organization.
The Thermodynamics of Evolutionary (open) Systems
To Die For (2nd edition) - The story of everything: Physics, spirituality, consciousness and afterlife, 2018
Preliminary revision for Chapter 6, 2nd ed., "To Die For -The story of everything: Physics, spirituality, consciousness and afterlife", which be published in its entirety in the next few months. Abstract: As strange as it may seem historically, thermodynamics and biological evolutionary emerged in science at the same time out of the same Newtonian context, seem for all intents and purposes to be intimately related to open another, yet they are complete physical opposites of one another. Thermodynamics is about disorder, entropy and inanimate matter in general, while biological evolution is all about order and the complexity of very special material systems that are, in general, inanimate. It should be evident across the whole spectrum of science that these two disciplines are related, but it seems that science goes to great lengths to demonstrate how they are essentially unrelated. That is because science has over limited and restricted both disciplines by definitions and ideas that are incomplete. Science regards only the chemical/mechanical/electrical processes of life as 'life' itself, while many people believe that 'life' itself is something that goes beyond the processes that maintain and sustain life. On the other hand, some scientists believe that 'life' is negentropic and defies the rules and principles of thermodynamics, but those who do not believe this go to great lengths to 'stretch' the limits of what constitutes a 'closed' system to accommodate, but not really explain, living organisms in any scientific manner. So, evolution and thermodynamics restrict themselves to the very thinly disguised Cartesian limits and boundaries between MIND and MATTER, which are not quite so evident elsewhere in science. Science mistakenly believes that it has passed far beyond those centuries' old Cartesian limits and influences, but it has not. Given this information and understanding how nature really works, it is easy to expand the laws of thermodynamics and apply them to evolution theory in such a way that a new 'evolution of physical systems' emerges of which biological evolution (whether Darwinian or modern genetic) is just one small but significant part.
Thermodynamics and biological evolution
Journal of Biological Physics, 1995
The author of the present paper hopes that the thermodynamic nature of biological evolution will be perceived in the nearest future. He suggests a macrothermodynamic model that takes into account the fact that in the course of ontogenesis, philogenesis and the appropriate stages of the general biological evolution the biosystems are enriched by energy-intensive chemical substances, which force water out of these systems. Moreover, macrothermodynamics helps one to understand adaptive changes in the composition and structure of the biosystems.