The physicochemical basis of biological order is a puzzling problem that has occupied whole generations of biologists and physicists and has given rise, in the it, to passionate discussions. Biological systems are highly complex and ordered objects. It is generally accepted that the present order reflects structures acquired during a long evolution. Moreover, the maintenance of order in actual living systems requires a great number of metabolic and synthetic reactions as well as the existence of complex mechanisms controlling the rate and the timing of the various processes. All these features bring the scientist a wealth of new problems. In the first place one has systems that have evolved spontaneously to extremely organized and complex forms. On the other hand metabolism, synthesis and regulation imply a highly heterogeneous distribution of matter inside the cell through chemical reactions and active transport. Coherent behavior is really the characteristic feature of biological systems (see the box on page 24).
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November 1972
November 01 1972
Thermodynamics of evolution
The functional order maintained within living systems seems to defy the Second Law; nonequilibrium thermodynamics describes how such systems come to terms with entropy.
Physics Today 25 (11), 23–28 (1972);