Chemical Carnot cycles, Landauer's principle, and the
thermodynamics of natural selection
|
| Expositor: |
Dr. Eric Smith Santa Fe Institute |
| Coordinador: |
Pablo Marquet |
| Lugar: |
Instituto de Sistemas
Complejos de Valparaíso (ISCV)
Subida Artillería 470, Cº Artillería,
Valparaíso (Costado Museo Naval, Paseo 21 de Mayo) |
| Fecha: |
27 Noviembre de 2008
|
| Horario |
10ºº am |
| Convocatoria : |
Abierta, sólo legar con puntualidad |
| Nota: |
Esta actividad no tiene costo
y hace parte de las actividades regulares del Instituto
de Sistemas Complejos de Valparaíso. |
Abstract
The second law of thermodynamics sets limits on the minimum energy required to reduce the entropy in any system in equilibrium, including chemical systems. But what do such limits mean for problems like natural selection, which uses the metabolic energy of growth and reproduction to create order in the biosphere by means of adaptation? I show that we can make this problem easier to understand by decomposing arbitrary chemical cycles into collections of simple cycles with a structure similar to the Carnot cycle of elementary thermodynamics. This allows us to precisely define the idea of chemical "engines" and chemical "refrigerators". Chemical Carnot cycles have more structure than the thermodynamic Carnot cycle, though, because they involve transfers of particles as well as energy. This additional structure makes them formally equivalent to models of computation, which transfer entropy from data streams to heat reservoirs. Making use of this equivalence, we can see that the second law of thermodynamics for chemistry has the same form as the limit on the energetic efficiency of computation known as Landauer's principle. We therefore have a structural equivalence between computation and chemistry that allows us to speak precisely about how natural selection is "putting information into" the biosphere, which may help us ask more complex questions without confusion.
Acerca del expositor
Profesor del Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe New Mexico (USA). El Dr. Smith es un físico interesado en fenómenos de auto-organización en sistemas físicos y químicos, el origen de la vida, mercados financieros y termodinámica. Junto al destacado bioquímico Harold Morowitz, el Dr. Smith ha propuesto que la universalidad del ciclo del acido Tricarboxílico en los organismos vivos refleja su rol como núcleo fundamental que hizo posible la emergencia de la vida, aunque funcionando en una variante reductora. Su trabajo reciente, se centra en la elaboración de las bases termodinámicas de la selección natural cuyo resultado es una teoría que permite entender la relación entre información, energía y computación en seres vivos.
Publicaciones seleccionadas
Smith, E. 2008. Thermodynamics of natural selection I: Energy flow and the limits on organization. J. Theor. Biol. 252 (2): 185-197.
Smith, E. 2008. Thermodynamics of natural selection II: Chemical Carnot cycles. J. Theor. Biol. 252 (2): 198-212.
Smith, E. 2008. Thermodynamics of natural selection III: Landauer's principle in computation and chemistry. J. Theor. Biol. 252 (2): 213-220.
Smith, E. 2008. Before Darwin. Scientist 22 (6): 32-38..
Smith, E. 2008. Quantum-classical correspondence principles for locally nonequilibrium driven systems. Phys. Rev. E 77 (2): art. no.-021109, Part 1.
Smith, E; Foley, DK. 2008. Classical thermodynamics and economic general equilibrium theory. J. Econ. Dyn. Contr. 32 (1): 7-65.
Copley, SD; Smith, E; Morowitz, HJ. 2007. The origin of the RNA world: Co-evolution of genes and metabolism. Bioor. Chem. 35 (6): 430-443.
Morowitz, H; Smith, E. 2007. Energy flow and the organization of life. Complexity 13 (1): 51-59.
Hoelzer, GA; Smith, E; Pepper, JW. 2006. On the logical relationship between natural selection and self-organization. J. Evol. Biol. 19 (6): 1785-1794.
Smith, E. 2005. Thermodynamic dual structure of linear-dissipative driven systems. Phys. Rev. E 72 (3): art. no.-036130, Part 2..
Copley, SD; Smith, E; Morowitz, HJ. 2005. A mechanism for the association of amino acids with their codons and the origin of the genetic code. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA)102 (12): 4442-4447.
Smith, E; Morowitz, HJ. 2004. Universality in intermediary metabolism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA)101 (36): 13168-13173.
Smith, E; Shubik, M. 2005. Strategic freedom, constraint, and symmetry in one-period markets with cash and credit payment. Econ. Theor. (3): 513-551.
Smith, E; Farmer, JD; Gillemot, L; Krishnamurthy, S. 2003. Statistical theory of the continuous double auction. Quant. Fin. 3 (6): 481-514.
Iori, G; Daniels, MG; Farmer, JD; Gillemot, L; Krishnamurthy, S; Smith, E. 2003. An analysis of price impact function in order-driven markets. Physica A 324 (1-2): 146-151.
Pastor-Satorras, R; Smith, E; Sole, RV. 2003. Evolving protein interaction networks through gene duplication. J. Theor. Biol. 222 (2): 199-210.
Daniels, MG; Farmer, JD; Gillemot, L; Iori, G; Smith, E. 2003. Quantitative model of price diffusion and market friction based on trading as a mechanistic random process. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (10): art. no.-108102.
