Dunk  wrote:

> On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 16:00:53 +0000 (UTC), "Robert Karl Stonjek"
>  wrote:
> 
> >The relationship between entropy and life has long been a puzzling one.
> >We know that life appears to flow up the entropy stream, but if we
> >carefully trace entropy through the entire system we find that entropy
> >is, as expected, either rising or remaining the same, but not falling.
> >
> >At this point we can not attribute anything special to life with regard
> >to entropy, except that in isolation (an open system or a closed system
> >where only a small part is considered) it seems to be lower than
> >expected.
> 
> Expected on the basis of what?  From the second law of thermo one
> expects the _change_ in entropy to be non-negative (for a closed
> system), and one expects the change in entropy minus another factor 
> to be non negative in any system.  
> 
> This is satisfied on a minute-to-minute basis for all life processes
> including DNA repliction, which consumes chemical enery whether or not
> there are changes in the DNA.  Over billions of years, just sum the
> non negative numbers for all the minutes.  The sum of nonnegative
> numbers is nonnegative.  QED
> 
> Speaking of entropy and spinning wheels as you do below, you'd like
> this:     Brownian ratchets
> http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Personal/gpharmer/games/

I've seen this demonstrated by the author. It is an amazing refutation
of the idea that random change cannot deliver directional outcomes. One
of those moments where your breath catches in your throat and you giggle
in realisation. Thanks for the ref

.....
-- 
John Wilkins
"Listen to your heart, not the voices in your head" - Marge Simpson
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