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Entropy & Life

What is the unique relationship between entropy and life, and how can it be used to characterize the
origin, evolution and search for life in the universe?

Munir H, Ahn P, Nagaria M, Wu R, Kim​ ​H.

Michael Hilke, Physics 181, McGill University | March 10, 2016
Table of Contents

Introduction 2

History and Origins of the Concept of Entropy and Life 4

The Theory of Negentropy 7

Other Evolution-Related Entropy Concepts 8

Entropy: Origins of life & The Search for Life in the Universe 12

List of Group Member Contributions 16

Bibliography 17

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Introduction
Entropy is a measure of the disorder prevalent in a dynamic system. The word disorder refers to the

“...number of different microscopic states a system can be in, given that the system has a particular fixed

composition, volume, energy, pressure, and temperature” (Merriam-Webster, 2017) . This concept can be easily

understood by imagining a bag of cubes. If we were to arrange a single cube on a table, there would only be one

variation. However, as we increase the number of cubes on the table, the number of variations increases

exponentially. In this situation, entropy is defined as “...the number of ways a system can be arranged whereby,

the higher the entropy, the more the system is disordered” (Merriam-Webster, 2017). There are numerous

examples of entropy in both chemical and physical interactions. For instance, when a piece of wood is set on

fire, it becomes ash, smoke and gases, all of which are more disordered than the solid wood. Another instance

would be a melting ice cube. It will transform itself from a solid state to a liquid state and then eventually

vaporize and turn into a gas form (Socratic, 2015)

Enthalpy is defined as the sum of internal energy of a system and the product of the pressure and

volume of the system (Quora, 2017). Both entropy and enthalpy are thermodynamical properties of a system

and they both deal with the formation of products. While entropy deals with the degree of disorder, enthalpy

deals with the energy of reactants compared to products as a result of either heat gain or heat loss.

Understanding entropy and enthalpy lead us to free energy. We are exposed to chemical reactions daily

and they are even inside our body. In fact, we get through our daily tasks using energy that chemical reactions

give and the amount of available energy depends on the type of food we eat and how much potential energy is

available in its chemical bonds. This left over energy after a chemical reaction has taken place that allows us to

function is called Gibbs free energy, or sometimes just Gibbs energy (McDougal, 2015).

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Michael Hilke, Physics 181, McGill University | March 10, 2016
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 The laws of thermodynamics describe “the relationships between thermal energy, or heat, and other

forms of energy, and how energy affects matter” (Lucas, 2015). The first law of thermodynamics states that

energy cannot be created or destroyed. In other words, the total quantity of energy in the universe stays the same

and they simply exist in different forms at times. The second law of thermodynamics is about the quality of

energy. It states that “...as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted” (Lucas, 2015).

The second law also states that “there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate into a more

disordered state” (Lucas, 2015). At a very microscopic level, the second law says that any natural process in an

isolated system progresses in the direction of increasing disorder (aka. entropy), of the system (Lucas 2015).

The law explains that all processes result in an increase in entropy. For instance, when crystals can form a salt

solution as the water is evaporated. Crystals are more orderly than sale molecules in solution; however,

vaporized water is much more disorderly than liquid water. Therefore, the net change incurred by the process

taken results in an increase in entropy.

Throughout this writing, we will discuss more about theories on entropy and life. Some of these

theories include: the theory of negentropy, ecological entropy, extropy and more. Entropy uniquely varies in the

context of life and cellular processes and each of those theories will give us a brief idea of how entropy plays a

role in various aspects of life.

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Michael Hilke, Physics 181, McGill University | March 10, 2016
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History and Origins of the Concept of Entropy & Life
The earliest concept of entropy, described as a physical process taking place in an isolated system, in

which the stated property can never decrease, was explained by Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (1844-1906) in his

kinetic theory of gases and is referred to as the ‘H-theorem’. It helped to “explain the irreversibility of the

phenomena as an essentially statistical property of a set of many atoms” (​McGuinness 1974)​. He is responsible

for the development of the Boltzmann’s equation and constant in the formula for entropy, ​S​, and for developing

the logarithmic connection of entropy and probability. It is his statistical relations, formulae, and analysis that

lead us into modern day entropy and life correlation theories.

One of the first physicists to look at entropy as a way to explain how living systems evolved was Erwin

Schrodinger (1887-1961), who made use of Boltzmann’s work on the H-theorem, the classical definition of

entropy, to expand on his own ideas in his book ​What is Life? ​(​Schrodinger, 2004​). In it he attempts to answer

“why living systems have far fewer replication errors, [via our DNA replication and genetic evolution], than

what would be predicted by classic statistical thermodynamics” in which entropy increases (​Schrodinger, 2004)​.

But what is unique about living systems is a local decrease of entropy, with which he represents with a

correction in Boltzmann’s original equations that accounts for the lack of random distribution in genetic

mechanisms. Through normal statistical thermodynamics, the equations predict millions more mutations than

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what actually occurs. ​Schrodinger also separated the random and non-random energy states to display why

entropy might have been low in the past but is increasing now (​Decker, 2010​).

The earliest origins of these theories were proposed in 1863 by Rudolf Clausius(1822-1888), as

published in his memoir where he surfacely developed the concept of entropy and life. Boltzmann built upon

these ideas and concluded the following:

“The general struggle for existence of animate beings is not a struggle for raw materials – these, for

organisms, are air, water and soil, all abundantly available – nor for energy which exists in plenty in any body in

the form of heat, but a ​struggle for [negative] entropy​, which becomes available through the transition of energy

from the ​hot sun​ to the ​cold earth​ (​Boltzmann, 1974).

Civil Engineer Richard Sears McCulloh (1818-1894) described some applications of this somewhat

abstract concept in physiology of life, where he states, “the body of an animal, not less than a steamer, or a

locomotive, is truly a heat engine, and the consumption of food in the one is precisely analogous to the burning

of fuel in the other; in both, the chemical process is the same: that called combustion” (​McCulloh, 1876)​. By

equating the machine systems to the biological systems, he was able to generate equations, in which he further

factors for the internal heat generated by friction, to account for the behavior and attributions of entropy for life.

He summarized the first and second laws of thermodynamics into this applied phenomenon as: “Everything

physical being subject to the ​law of conservation of energy​ [and the physics of entropy], it follows that no

physiological action can take place except with expenditure of ​energy​ derived from food; also, that an animal

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Michael Hilke, Physics 181, McGill University | March 10, 2016
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performing ​mechanical work​ must from the same quantity of food generate less heat than one abstaining from

exertion, the difference being precisely the ​heat equivalent​ of that of work” (​McCulloh, 1876).

The growth of “negative entropy” as a research field led to debates between classical entropy and free

energy behaviors. The true source of this phenomenon has been corrected in recent times to be from Gibbs free

energy, which more succinctly explains the tendency for life to feed off negative entropy or negentropy ​because

biological processes on Earth normally occur at a constant temperature and pressure but not across both over

short periods of time for individual organisms, where classical entropy behavior in isolated systems is observed

(​Schrodinger, 1944)​.

In 1964, a group of scientists were requested by ​NASA​ to make a theoretical life detection system to

look for ​life on Mars​. When thinking about this problem, the basic question was “What is life, and how should it

be recognized?” To this, one of the scientists, James Lovelock, replied: “I’d look for an entropy reduction, since

this must be a general characteristic of life” (Lovelock, 1979).​. ​Therefore, the current implications of entropy

and life on other planets and the development of growth and life are presently tied to a reduction or a negative

of entropy.

We will further look at these implications as the search for this truth and physical phenomenon

continues. Below is also a link to a video helping illustrate the concept of negative entropy and how it helps to

create life.

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Michael Hilke, Physics 181, McGill University | March 10, 2016
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The Theory of Negentropy
Negentropy is a concept introduced by Erwin Schrodinger in his efforts to explain “how the events in

space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism can be accounted for by

physics and chemistry.” Simply put, negentropy is the reverse of entropy; where entropy is the measure of

“disorder” within a system as the name indicates, neg(ative)entropy describes a dynamic that goes from a

disordered state to a more “ordered” state. The negentropy of a biological system is the entropy that it releases

in order to keep its entropy relatively low. As much as disorder is required to fuel life, organization is equally

necessary to keep life intact. (Sophia, 2009)

Note: although such a dynamic can seem to go against the second law of thermodynamics, it does not

conflict the law in any way. Since biological systems can be in environments with which it exchanges heat and

energy, a decrease in entropy still abides by the second law. (Morris, 1985)

Evolution itself can be described to be a negentropic and an entropic process. (Morris, 1985) The mere

degeneration and mutation of DNA is considered to be a positive entropic process (Morris, 1985). Overall,

when mutations are made to the genetic makeup of an organism, it will end up having more genetic material

than it did before the incorporation of the mutation, thus, resulting in an increase in entropy (Morris, 1985).

Since genetic mutation is the fundamental mechanism necessary for evolution and natural selection, the said

processes can be said to have an entropic process (Morris, 1985). Over a relatively short period of time,

evolution can be seen as an entropic process. However, over a longer period of time, evolution can be said to be

a negentropic.

As natural selection plays its part in evolution, there is more pressure for an organism to strive for a

more “efficient” genetic model. Thus, throughout evolution, organisms tend to reduce the size of their genome

by deleting extraneous genes. Elimination of extra genetic material means that an organism does not need to

spend time synthesizing the unnecessary protein. Creating order in our genome over time is said to be a

negentropic process. (Morris, 1985)

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 Within the dynamic of biological life, there are crucial processes that are negentropic. Organisms

consume things that have more disorder in order to create things that have more order: cells, tissue, and organs.

The product of this negatively entropic dynamic is heat and energy that is used to fuel life. (Wikimedia, 2016)

Other evolution-related entropy concepts

1. Ecological Entropy

Ecology is the study of the dependency and relationship between organisms with other organisms and

organisms with their environment. An example of such relationship would be how worms and insects contribute

to the creation of soil, which in turn allows trees and other plants to flourish.

The trophic system is often represented in an ecological pyramid which classifies the productivity of

plants at the bottom, the herbivores above, and carnivores at the top of the pyramid. “Whenever a fixed energy

of bi​omass is passed along a food chain, substantial energy losses occur during each transfer. These energy

losses are a necessary consequence of the so-called second law of ​thermodynamics​” ​(“Ecological Pyramid”,

n.d.)​. In this context, entropy is represented by losses of energy in the form of heat when fixed biological energy

is transferred along the trophic cycle. Due to the fact that a highly-ordered biomass state is converted to a

less-ordered energy form (heat), the results of energy transfers across organisms is ineffective and causes the

productivity of the trophic structure to be a pyramid shape.

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 In an ecosystem, an increase in entropy can put limitations on the functionality of the ecosystem. For an

example, cutting trees increases the entropy present in the universe. An increase in tree cutting can cause

deforestation which in turn, can have a negative impact on the ecosystem; as it impacts forest inhabitants and

those who use trees as a source of food and oxygen. There have been three different “entropy production”

hypothesis proposed but we will only discuss one of them as the other two are not relevant in terms of ecology.

The first claims that “increased entropy production serves as a fingerprint of living systems” ​(Meysman and

Bruers, 2010)​. In a study done by Meysman and bruers, they found that the first state held for any food web

they utilized. They tested Schrodinger’s idea with two systems, where the first system had poison which only

allowed abiotic (non-living) chemical reactions to convert to substrates and the second had microbials (living).

To test the idea, they used a particular type of living system- ecosystems. They used a series of ecosystem

models as follows: a) resource-consumer, b) resource-consumer-predator, and c) resource-consumer-omnivore

and calculated the entropy production associated to each model ​(Meysman and Bruers, 2010)​.

In the end, they found that a greater and increased entropy production is an indication of a living system. This is

intuitive since complex systems like to self-organize to reach a new state with the maximum entropy production

rate.

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 2.Extropy

Max More was the first to begin developing the theory of extropy- ​“the extent of a living or organizational

system’s intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy, life, experience, and capacity and drive for

improvement and growth” (Cordeiro, 2010)​. There are seven main principles of extropy: perpetual

progress, self-transformation, practical optimism, intelligent technology, open society, self direction, and

rational thinking. Perpetual progress focuses on overcoming obstacles on one’s progress and possibilities

as an individual. Self-transformation includes self-improvement from critical and creative thinking a​ nd

constant learning. Practical optimism is fueling oneself with positive expectations. Intelligent technology

centers on creating and managing technology as a way to improve life. Open Society emphasizes on

supporting means that foster freedom of communication, action, questioning, and learning. Self-direction

draws attention to individuality. Lastly, rational thinking favours rational thinking over trusting in blind

faith; meaning one must understand, experiment, and learn as opposed to simply believing in theories

(Cordeiro, 2010). ​From the above principles, More started to develop the idea of “transhuman”. This

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concept aims to enhance human intelligence, physique, and psychological capacities through developing

sophisticated technologies.

3. Ectropy

The term was first introduced by Felix Auerbach meaning an increase in organization (it is often interchanged

with the term negentropy). "​Entropy,​ is Greek for ​turning in​; the opposite term should therefore be the Greek

for ​turning out​, namely ​ectropy​" ​(Haskell, 1972).​ To be more exact, ectropy is useable energy. According to the

second law of thermodynamics, in a closed system the ectropy will decrease. Any species that is isolated will

deteriorate and die due to a decrease in ectropy since it needs ectropy from the outside environment in order to

survive. This can be thought of as when one eats, ectropy is obtained from the food source.

Munir H, Ahn P, Nagaria M, Wu R, Kim​ ​H.

Michael Hilke, Physics 181, McGill University | March 10, 2016
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Entropy, the Origin of life, and the Search for Life Elsewhere
From a physical standpoint, life has one unique capability related to entropy--it has the ability to trade

order and organization within the biological organization on cellular and macromolecular scales with disorder in

the form of heat. This property is quite contrary to what is encountered for inanimate physical objects that are

found on Earth, such as minerals, water and other inorganic substances. The obvious question then arises: How

has life gained this unique ability to feed off negative entropy to minimize disorder? In order to answer the

former question with a satisfiable response, the close relationship between the origin of life and its entropic

properties must be probed.

Although the early biological conditions on Earth for the origin of life is still studied to this day, a wide

agreement that remains within the scientific community is that inorganic elements, fueled with the necessary

temperature and atmospheric conditions on Earth, formed organic precursors in the form of amino acids and

lipid membranes (​Loeb 2013)​. Lipid membranes are an interesting organic structure to study from an entropic

perspective, as lipids naturally tend to clump towards one another and exclude water in a phenomenon known in

biochemistry as the hydrophobic effect.

The hydrophobic effect favours organization, in other words, tends towards decreased entropy it prefers

order by tucking in lipids close together, and minimizing its interaction with hydrophilic regions. This is the

basis for how lipid membranes form, and like

the plasma membrane, it can be seen that the

unique entropic properties of life begin with

these microscopic biological structures such as

the plasma membrane of cells--a lipid bilayer

that maintains its organization through

hydrophobic interactions and decreasing its

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entropic state (​Loeb 2013)​. Lipids are essential for abiogenesis as it provides the primary line for defense,

transport of materials and communication for cells. From here on, as a primitive cell begins to assimilate and

differentiate from its environment, it can then gain the necessary conditions to begin its evolution into more

complex life forms (albeit several other factors are required as well, lipids and lipid membranes remain

integral).

Thus, it is the initial compartmentalization of cells through hydrophobicity of lipid membranes where

life begins to feed off of negative entropy and minimize disorder by forming organized membranes.

The next question that arises is how life’s unique entropic properties are being used to discover life

elsewhere in the universe. Nobel-Laureate and physicist Erwin Schrödinger theorized in one of his works

(Schrödinger 1944) ​that life uniquely feeds off negative entropy and free energy and these properties are used to

differentiate life from ordinary, inanimate matter. James Lovelock, recruited by NASA in 1964 had been tasked

with determining the characteristics of life for a detection system that NASA was working on for a supposed

upcoming mission to Mars ​(Lovelock 1979)​. Lovelock boiled his task down to answering the questions of “what

life is, and how should it be characterized” (Lovelock 1979) ​in order to fulfill the task required by NASA.

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Recognizing the entropic principles put forth by Schrödinger, when speaking with colleagues at the Jet

Propulsion Laboratory at NASA about what to do when searching for life on Mars, Lovelock replied that “​I’d

look for an entropy reduction, since this must be a general characteristic of life” ​(Lovelock 1979). ​Hence, by

Lovelock’s logic, in the search for extraterrestrial life, reduction in entropy or its reversal can be a defining

factor ​(Lovelock 1979).

This argument is supported by the exploration of the origin of life here on Earth. Entropically,

biological systems are self-organizing systems that assemble into complex structures that provide specific

functions. When subjected to environmental influences, living organisms tend to assimilate their environment

for a more ordered state. Non-living beings, when subjected to the same environmental influences, will tend

towards disorder in their near environment. To illustrate this, consider a case in which scientists discover a

planet capable of supporting life outside of our solar system, and come to know of two objects on the surface.

One object is non-living, and the other is biological. Through a longitudinal analysis simply observing the

impact of a heavy rainstorm, let’s say on both these objects, can provide from an entropic perspective which

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 object is living and which is not.

The non-living object will remain

stationary, and splatter water

around its environment, increasing disorder and hence entropy. The living organism, assuming they have similar

nutrient requirements as humans, will assimilate water from the rainstorm, attempt to collect it and organize it in

order to drink it to fuel the complex biochemical mechanisms taking place. Hence, life’s ability to decrease

entropy in its nearby surroundings and its preference for order can be used as a diagnostic tool in the search for

life elsewhere.

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List of Group Member Contributions
Haroon Munir:

-”Entropy and the Search for Life Elsewhere” write up, research and graphics

-Report template formatting, margins, and topic subheading ideas

-Topic and subtopics suggestions

Percy Ahn

-Introduction write up

-Report formatting and editing

Harrison Kim & Rebecca Wu

-”The Theory of Negentropy” and “Other Evolution-Related Entropy Concepts” write up, research and
graphics

-Report formatting and editing,

Maha Nagaria

-”History and Origins of the Concept of Entropy and Life” write up, research and graphics

-Report formatting and editing,

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