Thermodynamic perspectives on genetic instructions, the laws of biology and diseased states.
This article examines in a broad perspective entropy and some examples of its relationship to evolution, genetic instructions and how we view diseases. Living organisms are programmed by functional genetic instructions (FGI), through cellular communication pathways, to grow and reproduce by maintaining a variety of hemistable, ordered structures (low entropy). Living organisms are far from equilibrium with their surrounding environmental systems, which tends towards increasing disorder (increasing entropy). Organisms free themselves from high entropy (high disorder) to maintain their cellular structures for a period of time sufficient to allow reproduction and the resultant offspring to reach reproductive ages. This time interval varies for different species. Bacteria, for example need no sexual parents; dividing cells are nearly identical to the previous generation of cells, and can begin a new cell cycle without delay under appropriate conditions. By contrast, human infants require years of care before they can reproduce. Living organisms maintain order in spite of their changing surrounding environment that decreases order according to the second law of thermodynamics. These events actually work together since living organisms create ordered biological structures by increasing local entropy. From a disease perspective, viruses and other disease agents interrupt the normal functioning of cells. The pressure for survival may result in mechanisms that allow organisms to resist attacks by viruses, other pathogens, destructive chemicals and physical agents such as radiation. However, when the attack is successful, the organism can be damaged until the cell, tissue, organ or entire organism is no longer functional and entropy increases.
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, N1G 2W1, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. jtrevors@uoguelph.ca
Jack T
JT
Trevors
Milton H
MH
Saier
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001695:Biology; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D004194:Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D019277:Entropy; D004777:Environment; D005823:Genetics; D006801:Humans; D013534:Survival; D013816:Thermodynamics
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