Living organisms increase in complexity as they grow, resulting in a decrease in the entropy of an organism. How does this relate to the second law of thermodynamics?

Question

Biology

Hana Carr

9 June, 11:06

Living organisms increase in complexity as they grow, resulting in a decrease in the entropy of an organism. How does this relate to the second law of thermodynamics?

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Fry · Answer 1

Second law of thermodynamics

Explanation:

Living organisms are highly organizational and therefore it seems that it feeds from "negative entropy" or, by other words, maintaining and getting to a stationary condition where the entropy level is low. Nevertheless it is necessary to understand that the proper definition of the second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy of an adiabatically isolated system never decreases. In this context a living cell or organism is not an isolated system, since it gets the nutrients from the exterior, that is, there is an exchange of heat or matter with the environment, and by doing so, we have to consider the system as an open one, together with its environment, restoring the balance to the universe in an increase of entropy, or by other words, increase of disorder.