Firenze University Press www.fupress.com/substantia Research Articles Thermodynamics of Life Citation: Henry M. (2021) Thermodynam- ics of Life. Substantia 5(1) : 43-71. doi: Marc Henry 10.36253/Substantia-959 Laboratoire de Chimie Moléculaire de l’Etat Solide, UMR 7140, Université de Strasbourg, Received: Jun 02, 2020 France E-mail:
[email protected] Revised: Aug 25, 2020 Just Accepted Online: Aug 26, 2020 Abstract. Biology is currently plagued by several fossil concepts that may be responsi- ble for the current stagnation in medicine. Through a careful screening of the origins Published: Mar 01, 2021 of thermodynamics, such fossils concepts have been identified: assumption that heat is Copyright: © 2021 Henry M. This is an a form of energy, assimilation of entropy to disorder, assimilation of death to states of open access, peer-reviewed article maximum entropy, assimilation of ATP to the energy currency of living cells, non-rec- published by Firenze University Press ognition of entropy as a state function of the whole universe, belief that free energies are (http://www.fupress.com/substantia) another kind of energy, self-referencing in the definition of life, ignorance of basic princi- and distributed under the terms of the ples of quantum physics and more particularly of the importance of intrinsic spin, confu- Creative Commons Attribution License, sion between three different forms of reversibility, non-recognition that irreversibility is which permits unrestricted use, distri- at the heart of living systems. After stowing of these concepts in the cabinet of useless bution, and reproduction in any medi- um, provided the original author and and nasty notions, a fresh new look is proposed showing how life is deep-rooted trough source are credited.