Dissipative Structures, Organisms and Evolution

Dilip K Kondepudi; Benjamin De Bari; James A Dixon

doi:10.3390/e22111305

Dissipative Structures, Organisms and Evolution

Entropy (Basel). 2020 Nov 16;22(11):1305. doi: 10.3390/e22111305.

Authors

Dilip K Kondepudi^{1

2}, Benjamin De Bari^{2

3}, James A Dixon^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA.
² Center for Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
³ Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.

Abstract

Self-organization in nonequilibrium systems has been known for over 50 years. Under nonequilibrium conditions, the state of a system can become unstable and a transition to an organized structure can occur. Such structures include oscillating chemical reactions and spatiotemporal patterns in chemical and other systems. Because entropy and free-energy dissipating irreversible processes generate and maintain these structures, these have been called dissipative structures. Our recent research revealed that some of these structures exhibit organism-like behavior, reinforcing the earlier expectation that the study of dissipative structures will provide insights into the nature of organisms and their origin. In this article, we summarize our study of organism-like behavior in electrically and chemically driven systems. The highly complex behavior of these systems shows the time evolution to states of higher entropy production. Using these systems as an example, we present some concepts that give us an understanding of biological organisms and their evolution.

Keywords: dissipative structures; entropy production; evolution; nonequilibrium thermodynamics; organism.