In 1944 Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrodinger (Physics, 1933) sought to understand bi
ID: 71973 • Letter: I
Question
In 1944 Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrodinger (Physics, 1933) sought to understand biology as a physicist would, and tackle the most fundamental of questions that plagues biologists: What is Life? His short monograph aptly titled What Is Life? was based on a series of lectures delivered under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College. Dublin, in February 1943. This is perhaps the first ever text on biophysics and was far ahead of its time. In this book Schrodinger says "an organism feeds with negative entropy." What does he mean by this? One argument against Darwin's theory of evolution draws upon the second law of thermodynamics. This is because organisms are highly ordered and they continually create highly ordered structures in cell from less-ordered nutrient molecules. Does this mean that organisms violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? Explain.Explanation / Answer
A. Schrodinger's concept of negative entropy underlines the idea that the analogue state of maximum entropy is death in case of living organisms.The process by means of which life can be prolonged and death could be delayed is to acquire negative entropy from surroundings and to avoid maximizing the entropy.He actually meant free energy by coining the term negative entropy.
B. The second law of thermodynamics is as follows: the entropy of a closed system tends to increase.
Actually the theory of evolution does not violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics.This is because life cannot be considered as a closed system.The sun is a constant source of energy for life and the entire solar system can be considered as a closed system.The reactions occuring in the sun emits large amount of energy and results in a massive increase in entropy although evolution results in a decrease of entropy locally.So considering the solar system as a closed system the overall entropy increases, so evolution follows 2nd law of thermodynamics.