Maintenance of Order and the Entropy Law −Examples in Life, Earth Environment and Fusion Device− Professor Emeritus, Osaka University E-Mail: [email protected] Akira Hasegawa Abstract: When work is done in a closed system, increased entropy on the earth surface and sustain energy is converted to heat and physical entropy, the habitable environment, thus these are the most the ratio of the system heat to the system desirable energy source. not because of the temperature, increases. Law of increase of entropy, abandance of the resources as commonly considered. when broadly interpreted, leads to deterioration of Maintenance of order of a system or a unit is only order in a closed system. Thus the entropy law possible by a continuous ejection of the increased presents challenges to maintenance of life, the earth entropy out of the system which is often more environment and other sytems that require important than intake of energy to do internal work. sunstained internal order. In particular, creation of life and maintenance thereof presents the most Keywords: entropy, life, thermodynamics, the earth interesting challenge to the implication of the environment, system order. entropy law. From the entropy point of view, the life is maintained by self-organization and maintenance of order based on DNA information 1. Introduction with a help of intake of negentropy and exhaust of In a closed system, when work is done, the energy increased entropy outside of the body. Such is is converted to heat and the entropy increases. The possible only in an open system where exchange of entropy law is interpretted as temporal deterioration entropy with external environment is allowed. Here of quality of energy in thermodynamics or that of the negentropy is defined as a free energy that can order in information theory in a system. The do work a result of which leads to increase of the entropy law applies to a closed system. In an open system internal entropy[1]. The global balance of system where exchange of entropy with external entropy needed to sustain lives on the earth is environment is allowed, the system can sustain low provided by the negentropy flow from the sun and entropy state, or an ordered state, even when work the exhaust of increased entropy from the earth in is done internally, provided a proper intake of the form of the black body infrared radiation. negentropy [1] and simultaneous ejection of Particular emphasis is placed in this paper on the increased entropy out of the system are performed necessity of exhaust of increased entropy to the continuously. Here negentropy is defined as a form external environment for the healthy maintenance of of free energy in physical or chemical processes a life and habitable environment of the earth, or an and/or order in information theory whereby when order in a system in general. Desease and aging are work is done the system entropy increases and caused by increase of internal entropy of a body and negentropy decreases. Schrödinger [2] is the first to similarly the health of the earth environment is point out importance of intake of negentropy rather deteriorated by the increase of entropy in the form than energy for a life. However he failed to notice of heat, chemical and nuclear waste unless increased the importance of exhaust of increased entropy to entropy is ejected out to outer space. In this regard external environment for healthy maintenance of a only the solar energy, geothermal energy and/or the life or to maintain the low entropy state, that is, the tidal energy can play the role that does not lead to order in a body. Note that intake of oxygen, food ― 10 ― (hydrocarbon and protein) and other nutrition is earth to outer space. However, during the past considered as import ingedient of negentropy. The century human started to use energies from fossile work is done inside a body in the form of muscle and nuclear fuels. The problem of this is not motions, blood circulations, electrical switching of whether these energy resouces are available in synapses and neurons as well as regeration of cells future or not, but whether the increased entropy as based on DNA information from aminoacid. a consequence of the work done by these energies Increased entropy produced in these works is can be exhaused out of the earth or not. exhausted out of the body in the form of carbon Unfortunately the answer is no. Fossil fuels increases dioxides, water, heat and other wastes. The autofugy carbon dioxide contents in the air which reduces the plays the important role of cleaning up the internal ability of infrared ratiation from the earth thus entropy of the cell [3]. Only due to the proper reduces entropy exhaust from the earth at least for ejection of increased entropy from the body, the a period of time until a new equilibrium is proper order and low entropy state of a body, established.. Similarly use of nuclear energy consequently the life can be sustained. For example accumulate nuclear wastes both from the used fuels if carbon dioxide and heat remain in the body after and from the radioactivated reactor structures, thus chemical reaction of oxigen with glucose, the life is the increased radioactive entropy raminas on the terminated almost immediately. Therefore intake of earth surface and can not be ejected out to space. negentropy is not equivalent to exhaust of increased Similar to the life activity, the increase of entropy on entropy. Aging is considered to be a consequence of the earth surface results in unhealthy environment gradual accumulation of entropy failed to be and eventually leads to unhabitable environment of exhausted, while desease is caused by undesirable the earth. The concept of necessity of ejection of accumulation or internal increase of entropy. In increased entropy out of a system in order to order to maintain a life, increased entropy should be maintain the internal low entropy state or the taken out of the body. An exponential increase of internal order applies broadly to any system that entropy may occur if a system is locally closed, an requires internal order. Other example includes example of which is a cancer. Cancer cells are no fusion devices, corporation structure, national order different from ordinary cells, thus some people and/or domestic order. It is clear from these believes they do not represent the increased examples, the exhaust of increased entropy is or entropy. However the unpredicatable and even more important than resources of negentropy. uncontrollable growth of the cell represents an In this manuscript, by taking examples of the earth, increase of disorder and is nothing but an increased life sytem, and a fusion device, I present examples of entropy from the point of informatin theory. how an order, or a low entropy state can be In the example of the earth environment, the maintained in an open system that allows entropy negentropy source that sustains the order on the exchange with external environment. earth surface including the life activities is the solar radiation. The solar radiation heats the air to a 2. Merit of the sun as the ultimate source of proper temperature for life activities and provides negentropy photons for various photosyntheses for vegitation Low entropy of a system is maintained by and animals. When the work is done, the solar continuous ejection of increased entropy out side of radiation becomes heat which is radiated out of the a system. In this section we take the example of the earth in the form of infrared black body radiation so earth and demonstrate how the orde, or the that there is no net increase of entropy on the earth habitable environment of the earth is maintained surface. Here again the habitable environment and inspite of continuous increase of internal entropy by the order on the earth surface are sustained only the atmospheric heating and various life activities. because of the continuous entropy ejection from the Note that the sun is in its thermal equilibrium and is ― 11 ― regarded to be at the maximum entropy state. The taken in and oxygen is exhausted out where the black body radiation from the sun, the solar solar radiation is used in the reaction. The radiation, is in thermal equilibrium in the solar photosynthesis helps production of oxygen from environment and has no negentropy there. The carbon dioxide and water as well as the synthesis of earth is also in thermal equilibrium in that the heat the plant body itself. Since the light, which carries that comes from the solar radiation is continuously the electromagnetic energy, has lower entropy than radiated out of the earth by her own blackbody chemical entropy of carbon dioxide and water, it can ratiation. However, entropy carried in by solar overcome the decrease of chemical entropy by radiation is much less than that radiated from the bringing in enough electromagnetic negentropy to earth because the radiation temperature of the sun the system. This is possible because the grade of is much higher than that of the earth. Or electromagnetic energy is higher than that of alternatively, number of photons in the solar chemical energy[1]. raditaion at visible wavelengths is much less than The sun is generally considered as the energy that of the black body radiation from the earth at source for our lives. This is not quite correct since infra-red radiation. Note that number of photons in the total energy that comes from the sun to the radiation is given by the energy of the radiation earth is reemitted out of the earth to outer space in devided by the frquency of the photons.