classic text drawn from a series of public lectures. 6
That this analysis should come from a physicist is perhaps fitting in further blurring the artificial boundaries between the modern disciplines in science. Physics, by its nature, tends toward the fundamental, and Schrödingerâs conclusions derive from one of the absolute and most nonnegotiable universal rules: the second law of thermodynamics. This is the principle that dictates with total authority that over a period of time, energy will always flow from a higher state to a lower state and never in the other direction. We see the application of the second law all around us. Once the heat is turned off, a pan of bubbling soup can only cool down. This principle extends to every aspect of our lives: the heat of a radiator is dissipated into warming our rooms because it is attempting to equilibrate the two imbalanced energy states: one is hotter than the other. It will never happen in reverse. The measure of the second law is what we refer to as entropy. At a constant temperature, a plump balloon will only deflate unless its knot is perfectly sealed, in which case it will remain constantly inflated. But it will never expand if its surroundings remain unchanged. Within the closed seal of the balloon it has reached equilibrium and its entropy is constant. But relative to the rest of the world, it has a higher energy state and therefore wishes (if one can express desire in a balloon) to spread its energy more fairly. This tendency toward fair distribution in energy is represented by an increase in entropy.
What Schrödinger argued was that living systems are the continual maintenance of energy imbalance. In essence, life is the maintenance of disequilibrium, and energy as life uses it is derived from this inequity. It is sometimes described as a far-from-equilibrium process. The entropy of the universe is bound only to increase, thereby ultimately creating a more balanced but less ordered existence. The temperature throughout the universe will eventually be the same, following the even distribution of its total energy as the second law of thermodynamics commands. 7 Schrödinger recognized that all living organisms evade the decay to energy equilibrium during their life spans, and continue to do so in their descendants. This has occurred continuously on Earth for almost four billion years. We consume food, and energy is extracted from it inside cells. In doing so, we construct an order within our bodies, without which decay would transpire.
This order maintained in living cells appears at first glance to be in direct contravention with the second law of thermodynamics, which dictates that entropy will always increase, and therefore organization will decrease. Chaos is the ultimate direction of all things, and living things are not chaotic (at least on the terms laid out by physics). But this apparent paradox is not a problem. The law states that the incontrovertible increase in entropy occurs within a closed system. The universe in total is a closed system, as there is, by definition, nothing but the universe. On a more local scale, living things are not a closed system. We produce waste as a result of our life-sustaining metabolism, and expel it into the rest of the universe. While order is increased and maintained during any life span within the living thing itself, this seeming contradiction of the second law is more than compensated for by an overall increase in entropy beyond the confines of that organism: that is, your waste. The entropy of the amount of waste you have generated in your life is overwhelmingly more than the reduced entropy your body maintains by being ordered. And thus, the laws of the universe remain perfectly intact.
Life is a process that stops your molecules from simply decaying into more stable forms. The process of living is the chemistry that perpetually holds off decay. And this is precisely why the concept of the primordial soup is
That this analysis should come from a physicist is perhaps fitting in further blurring the artificial boundaries between the modern disciplines in science. Physics, by its nature, tends toward the fundamental, and Schrödingerâs conclusions derive from one of the absolute and most nonnegotiable universal rules: the second law of thermodynamics. This is the principle that dictates with total authority that over a period of time, energy will always flow from a higher state to a lower state and never in the other direction. We see the application of the second law all around us. Once the heat is turned off, a pan of bubbling soup can only cool down. This principle extends to every aspect of our lives: the heat of a radiator is dissipated into warming our rooms because it is attempting to equilibrate the two imbalanced energy states: one is hotter than the other. It will never happen in reverse. The measure of the second law is what we refer to as entropy. At a constant temperature, a plump balloon will only deflate unless its knot is perfectly sealed, in which case it will remain constantly inflated. But it will never expand if its surroundings remain unchanged. Within the closed seal of the balloon it has reached equilibrium and its entropy is constant. But relative to the rest of the world, it has a higher energy state and therefore wishes (if one can express desire in a balloon) to spread its energy more fairly. This tendency toward fair distribution in energy is represented by an increase in entropy.
What Schrödinger argued was that living systems are the continual maintenance of energy imbalance. In essence, life is the maintenance of disequilibrium, and energy as life uses it is derived from this inequity. It is sometimes described as a far-from-equilibrium process. The entropy of the universe is bound only to increase, thereby ultimately creating a more balanced but less ordered existence. The temperature throughout the universe will eventually be the same, following the even distribution of its total energy as the second law of thermodynamics commands. 7 Schrödinger recognized that all living organisms evade the decay to energy equilibrium during their life spans, and continue to do so in their descendants. This has occurred continuously on Earth for almost four billion years. We consume food, and energy is extracted from it inside cells. In doing so, we construct an order within our bodies, without which decay would transpire.
This order maintained in living cells appears at first glance to be in direct contravention with the second law of thermodynamics, which dictates that entropy will always increase, and therefore organization will decrease. Chaos is the ultimate direction of all things, and living things are not chaotic (at least on the terms laid out by physics). But this apparent paradox is not a problem. The law states that the incontrovertible increase in entropy occurs within a closed system. The universe in total is a closed system, as there is, by definition, nothing but the universe. On a more local scale, living things are not a closed system. We produce waste as a result of our life-sustaining metabolism, and expel it into the rest of the universe. While order is increased and maintained during any life span within the living thing itself, this seeming contradiction of the second law is more than compensated for by an overall increase in entropy beyond the confines of that organism: that is, your waste. The entropy of the amount of waste you have generated in your life is overwhelmingly more than the reduced entropy your body maintains by being ordered. And thus, the laws of the universe remain perfectly intact.
Life is a process that stops your molecules from simply decaying into more stable forms. The process of living is the chemistry that perpetually holds off decay. And this is precisely why the concept of the primordial soup is
Similar Books
