Journal ArticleDOI
Entropy, Evolution and Living Systems
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If such a statistical distribution of entropy were possible in the biological world, a similar statistical distribution should also exist in non-living systems; and for every spontaneous reaction, a small number of products with decreased entropy should result.Abstract:
IT has been suggested that a statistical distribution of entropy among a large number of entities will lead to a small percentage of them possessing a lower entropy than the mean value for the group as a whole1. To illustrate this point Campbell considered the example of the codfish laying a million eggs. This, however, is not a representative example of the entire biological world, for birds and mammals produce a very small number of eggs and the higher mammals produce only one egg at a time. Furthermore, if such a statistical distribution of entropy were possible in the biological world, a similar statistical distribution should also exist in non-living systems; and for every spontaneous reaction, a small number of products with decreased entropy should result. This is contrary to all known facts.read more
Citations
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INformation, entropy and various systems.
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Book ChapterDOI
Time in Statistical Physics and Special Relativity
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Journal ArticleDOI
The effects from combining urea and an alcohol on the heat-induced reversible denaturation of ribonuclease.
Sicco Y. Gerlsma,Elzo R. Stuur +1 more
TL;DR: The presence of urea decreases the hydrophobic effect of a monovalent alcohol, strongly at low temperatures, to a lesser degree at high temperatures (60 degrees C), and hinders the interhydrophobic interactions by affecting the water molecules.
Journal ArticleDOI
Aspects of the Clausius-Shannon identity: emphasis on the components of transitive information in linear, branched and composite physical systems.
TL;DR: The relationship between information and entropy, known as the Clausius-Shannon Identity, is discussed with reference to selected thermodynamic models and that aspect of information which is often overlooked, namely the distinction, between transitive and intransitive information is highlighted.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Entropy and evolution.
TL;DR: The author merely evades one of the most important questions at issue in the earlier correspondence when he says that those eggs which are “most likely to grow and repeat the reproductive process” are those whose genomes have a lower entropy content than those of the parents.
Journal ArticleDOI
Does Quantum Mechanics exclude Life
TL;DR: In this paper, a discussion of self-reproduction is discussed from the point of view of quantum mechanics in connexion with living objects. But it can only be very speculative (as pointed out in our publications), since a living system is always large by quantum mechanical standards.
Journal ArticleDOI
Time's Arrow and Feeding on Negentropy
Karl Popper,Karl Popper +1 more
TL;DR: In the article "Time's Arrow and Entropy" as mentioned in this paper, only one voice of dissent, Professor Buchel's letter, has been expressed, and this letter consists of three paragraphs, to which I shall reply in order.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biological Entropy Pump
TL;DR: The “entropy pump” is described whereby the species of living matter not only prevent a drop into a position of greater positive entropy at each generation, but may in fact acquire more negentropy as their reproduction continues.
Journal ArticleDOI
Does Quantum Mechanics exclude Life
TL;DR: In this paper, the possibility that quantum mechanics might predict and explain the phenomena of life was discussed and discussed in a recent paper by LANDSBERG, who reopened a problem discussed earlier by Wigner.