12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 Evolution and Entropy are Irreversible

Evolution in the biosphere is therefore a necessarily irreversible process defining a direction in time; a direction which is the same as that enjoined by the law of increasing entropy, that is to say, the second law of thermodynamics. This is far more than a mere comparison: the second law is founded upon considerations identical to those which establish the irreversibility of evolution. Indeed, it is legitimate to view the irreversibility of evolution as an expression of the second law in t...
Folksonomies: evolution life entropy
Folksonomies: evolution life entropy
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Evolution is irreversible?

26 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 The Second Law of Thermodynamics

There is only one law of Nature—the second law of thermodynamics—which recognises a distinction between past and future more profound than the difference of plus and minus. It stands aloof from all the rest. ... It opens up a new province of knowledge, namely, the study of organisation; and it is in connection with organisation that a direction of time-flow and a distinction between doing and undoing appears for the first time.
Folksonomies: physics thermodynamics
Folksonomies: physics thermodynamics
  2  notes

A beautiful comment about it.

11 APR 2011 by ideonexus

 Lovelock Gets the Second Law of Thermodynamics Wrong

Let us again look at the laws of thermodynamics. It is true that at first sight they read like the notice at the gait of Dante's Hell; but in fact, tough as they are and although like income tax they cannot without penalyt be evaded, they can with forethought be avoided. The Second Law states unequivocally that the entropy of an open system must increase. Since we are all open systems, this means that all of us are doomed to die.
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He gets this backwards. The Second Law only applies to closed systems. We and our planet are not closed systems, we are open systems; therefore, mortality is not required of us. In fact, the second law states that, so long as we can keep exporting entropy by taking in energy from outside sources, we can live forever.