In: Biology
Chapter 1 identified the characteristics of life and chapter 6 has introduced the laws of thermodynamics. How can the requirements of life and universal randomness identified by the laws of thermodynamics be compatible?
We can see the Second Law of universal randomness at work in our daily life. We eat food each day, without gaining that same amount of body weight. The food we eat provides energy and raw materials for repairing and rebuilding bodily cells and tissues, physical movement, and neuronal activity,etc. However, most of the energy obtained from food is dissipated as heat. This heat energy that is released in the environment increases entropy of the surroundings in agreement to the sevseclaw of thermodynamics.
Living organisms appear to reduce entropy, by anabolic reactions where small molecules are combined to form complex higher order structures like DNA, Proteins, polysaccharides, etc. However these anabolic reactions release huge amount of energy in the form of heat. This increases the entropy of the universe. These are few examples which indicate that requirements of life and laws of thermodynamics are compatible.