Category: thermodynamics

  • Entropy and Miscibility Gap: Tutorial for Biologists

    Main Points A homogeneous phase can be spontaneously decomposed into two immiscible phases. Concentration gradients can be spontaneously formed at the border between immiscible phases when the system reaches its equilibrium state. At constant temperature and pressure the entropy of system in question spontaneously decreases during the separation process. In the adiabatic system the increase…

  • Muddle Puddle with Entropy in Biology

    One paragraph from J. Scott Turner, Biology’s Second Law: Homeostasis, Purpose, and Desire. In Beyond Mechanism: Putting Life Back Into Biology I should say that the book is good and the chapter actually is also not bad. Yet, this paragraph speaks for itself: p. 192 “At its most general, the disequilibrium that characterizes a living system…

  • Prigogine: The new alliance

    I. Prigogine and I. Stengers, The new alliance, Scientia 112 (1977) Part One – From Dynamics to Thermodynamics: Physics, the Gradual Opening towards the World of Natural Processes, 319-332. Part Two – An Extended Dynamics: towards a Human Science of Nature, 643-653. I like the beginning of the first part where the problem is formulated…

  • Thermodynamics of evolution

    Prigogine, I., G. Nicolis & A. Babloyantz (1972). Thermodynamics of evolution. Physics Today 25(11), 23-28. “The functional order maintained within living systems seems to defy the Second Law; nonequilibrium thermodynamics describes how such systems come to terms with entropy.” Prigogine, I., G. Nicolis & A. Babloyantz (1972). Thermodynamics of evolution. Physics Today 25(12), 38-44. “The…

  • Schrödinger’s Order, Disorder and Entropy

    Recently I have made a talk “Does Entropy Play a Role in Biology?” where I have made a short introduction to the thermodynamic entropy and discussed misconceptions of the entropy in biology. Now I see that I have missed to mention an important text that seemed to play a big role in raising one particular…

  • Entropy and Information

    In the modern scientific culture, the statement that the entropy and information are the same things is ubiquitous. For example the famous paper of Edwin T. Jaynes [1] according to Google Scholar [2] has been cited more than 5000 times. The list of books from Prof Gordon [3] about the deep relationship between entropy and…

  • Books on entropy and information

    A list of books from Prof Gordon http://groups.google.com/group/embryophysics/msg/e9229530251b7d58 While I might agree with you on the misuse of “entropy” in biology, many people would disagree with you, as evidenced by the list of books below. Adami, C. & N.J. Cerf (1999). What information theory can tell us about quantum reality. In: Quantum Computing and Quantum…

  • Thermodynamics: A Dynamical Systems Approach

    In 2008 I have read the book Thermodynamics: A Dynamical Systems Approach by Wassim M. Haddad, Vijay Sekhar Chellaboina, & Sergey G. Nersesov. and then I have posted my comments to it to the thermodynamicslib group. Now I have added the comments to my blog. You will find below the links to my comments for each chapter…