Abstract
Thermodynamics of open systems offers a new concept for description of real material objects including the living systems. The second law of thermodynamics can be interpreted as an evolution law of all material systems, which are in interaction with surroundings. The most important quantity is entropy, which is defined by balance of entropy. The production of entropy gives information about the processes in the systems. The convexity of entropy informs about the stability of the system states. Under the appropriate outer conditions, the fluctuations can force the systems to instability. Consequence is the creation or decay of new dissipative structures. When the new dissipative structure appears, the system is going out of the thermodynamic equilibrium to the new stable state. However, if the dissipative structure disappears, the systems will tend to the thermodynamic equilibrium. From the biological point of view, the thermodynamic equilibrium equals to death.
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Maršík, F., Novotný, P., Tomáš, M. (2017). What Is Entropy—A Generalized Outlook and Application to Living Systems. In: Šesták, J., Hubík, P., Mareš, J. (eds) Thermal Physics and Thermal Analysis. Hot Topics in Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45899-1_4
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